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This is the first time that I have used the Zeiss Batis lens to photograph the various follies in St.Anne’s Park and I must admit that I am very happy with the results mainly because of the detail captured in the images that I have published online. I am so pleased with the 25mm lens that I have decided to purchase the new 18mm Batis if I can raise the cash. I am also considering the new Sony GM lenses but they may prove to be too expensive for me.
St. Annes is known for its follies, of which there are approximately ten, mainly around the Naniken river. The follies include a Herculanean Temple on a mock-ruined bridge abutment along the Naniken river, which served as a tearoom for the family, a Pompeian Water Temple of Isis on the banks of the duckpond, and the Annie Lee Tower and Bridge near the chestnut walk.
Other follies include Saint Anne's Well beside the duckpond, after which the park gets its name, the Hermitage Bridge, Yew Circle and Fountain (behind the formal walled garden beside the house), rustic cave and bridge, three rustic archways and a rock work feature. A "Druidic Circle" of Giant's Causeway basalt was lost at an earlier stage. An unusual folly is the Roman style viewing tower which stands on the hill overlooking the duckpond. This started out as an observation tower on the roof of the original house. Later, the tower was removed during extensive refurbishment of St. Anne's house in about 1873 and placed in its current location. It is modelled on the Tomb of the Julii at Glanum near St. Rémy in France.
Many of the follies are in a neglected condition at present, with graffiti being an ongoing problem. For example, the Roman style viewing tower is graffiti covered and has been closed for many years. In addition it is completely hidden by mature trees and could only be revealed by felling them, which would be detrimental to the environment of the park. An alternative proposal is that the tower be moved instead to the site of the old rockery, near the junction of James Larkin Road and Mount Prospect Avenue.
In 2010, Dublin City Council, with the support of the Heritage Council, commissioned a strategy by conservation architects (Shaffrey and Associates) for the long-term conservation of these follies, and it is planned to implement this on a phased basis. It is now 2016 and I have visited the park at least twice per year since 2010 and I am convinced that the follies are now in a worse condition than they were back in 2010 and I am not at all sure that they can be saved
The Postcard
A postally unused carte postale published by Rella of Nice. Does anyone out there have any idea why there are chains hanging from the ceiling?
Monte Carlo
Monte Carlo refers to an administrative area of the Principality of Monaco.
Monte Carlo (literally "Mount Charles") is situated on a prominent escarpment at the base of the Maritime Alps. Near the quarter's western end is the world-famous Place du Casino, the gambling center which has made Monte Carlo an international byword for the extravagant display and reckless dispersal of wealth.
It is also the location of the Hôtel de Paris, the Café de Paris, and the Salle Garnier (the casino theatre which is the home of the Opéra de Monte-Carlo).
The quarter's eastern part includes the community of Larvotto with Monaco's only public beach, as well as its new convention center (the Grimaldi Forum), and the Monte-Carlo Bay Hotel & Resort.
At the quarter's western border, one crosses into the French town of Beausoleil (sometimes referred to as Monte-Carlo-Supérieur), and just 8 kilometres (5 mi) to its east is the western border of Italy.
Circuit de Monaco
Monte Carlo is host to most of the Circuit de Monaco, on which the Formula One Monaco Grand Prix takes place.
Salle Garnier
The Opéra de Monte-Carlo or Salle Garnier was built to designs of the architect Charles Garnier, who also designed the Paris opera house.
Although much smaller, the Salle Garnier is very similar in style, with decorations in red and gold, and frescoes and sculptures all around the auditorium. It was inaugurated on 25 January 1879 with a performance by Sarah Bernhardt dressed as a nymph.
Monte Carlo in the Media
Monte Carlo has featured in numerous films and television series, most recently in the 2011 movie of the same name.
Monte Carlo was the setting for the 1922 Erich von Stroheim silent film 'Foolish Wives', although it was filmed in California.
The casino featured in the James Bond films 'Never Say Never Again' (1983), and 'GoldenEye' (1995).
Princess Grace
'To Catch a Thief' (1954) was an Alfred Hitchcock film with Monte Carlo and its famous casino as the setting. It featured Cary Grant and Grace Kelly, the future Princess Grace of Monaco, as the stars.
There is a scene in the movie where the-then Grace Kelly drives a car very quickly—and dangerously—along the steep winding roads of Monaco that surround the heights of Monte Carlo; a tragic precursor to her actual fate in 1982.
On the 13th. September 1982, Kelly was driving back to Monaco from her country home in Roc Agel. She lost control of her 1971 Rover P6 and drove off the steep, winding road down the 120 foot (37 m) mountainside.
Her daughter Stéphanie, who was in the passenger seat, tried but failed to regain control of the car. Kelly was taken to the Monaco Hospital (later named the Princess Grace Hospital Centre) with injuries to the brain and thorax and a fractured femur.
Doctors believed that she had suffered a minor stroke while driving. She died the following night aged 52 at 10:55 p.m. after Prince Rainier chose to take her off life support.
Stéphanie suffered light concussion and a hairline fracture of a cervical vertebra, and was unable to attend her mother's funeral.
Notable Residents of Monte Carlo
Notable residents of Monte Carlo include:
Shirley Bassey (singer) United Kingdom
Bono (singer with U2) Republic of Ireland
Jenson Button (former Formula One driver) United Kingdom
David Coulthard (former Formula One driver) United Kingdom
Mohamed Al-Fayed (ex-Harrods owner) Egypt
Matthew Goss (professional cyclist) Australia
Philip Green (entrepreneur) United Kingdom
Stelios Haji-Ioannou (owner of EasyJet) Cyprus Greece United Kingdom
Lewis Hamilton (Formula One driver) United Kingdom
Justin Hayward (singer with the Moody Blues) United Kingdom
Gina Lollobrigida (actress) Italy
Helmut Newton (photographer) Germany/Australia
Mike Oldfield (musician) United Kingdom
Paula Radcliffe (marathon world record holder) United Kingdom
David Shilling (milliner) United Kingdom
Ringo Starr (drummer with the Beatles) United Kingdom.
Published article : Chora, a village of Amorgos island , Aegean sea
www.privatephotoreview.com/.../chora-a-village.../
January 2024
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this page without written permission and consent.
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Opening-act dei Whitesnake all’Alcatraz di Milano il 29 novembre 2015, The Dead Daisies.
Influenced by 70’s and early 80’s hard rock, The Dead Daisies sound is soulful and accessible – equal parts of The Faces, Bad Company and Foreigner: muscular vocals, bluesy riffs, big choruses, powerful melodies and strong hooks. With stellar musicianship and pulverizing live shows, fans across the globe are discovering the band that is bringing back Rock & Roll!
The musical collective is created by a rotating line-up that features some of the best Rock musicians on the planet. This includes: Richard Fortus (Guns N’ Roses/The Psychedelic Furs), Dizzy Reed (Guns N’ Roses/Hookers and Blow), Darryl Jones (The Rolling Stones), Charley Drayton (The X-pensive Winos/The Cult), Jon Stevens (Noiseworks/INXS), Brian Tichy (Ozzy Osbourne/Billy Idol), David Lowy (Red Phoenix/Mink), John Tempesta (The Cult/Rob Zombie), Marco Mendoza (Thin Lizzy/Whitesnake), John Corabi (Motley Crue/RATT), Alex Carapetis (Julian Casablancas + The Voidz/Nine Inch Nails), Bernard Fowler (The Rolling Stones) and Frank Ferrer (Guns N’ Roses/The Psychedelic Furs).
Richard Fortus, originally from St. Louis, Missouri, is probably best know for his ‘other’ position, guitarist with legendary American rock band Guns N’ Roses where he handles both rhythm and lead duties since first joining the band 2001.
Marco Mendoza is a well-known face around the rock music circuit. His bass playing skills have seen him hold down the rhythm section for many legendary bands like Thin Lizzy, Whitesnake, Dolores O'Riordan, Lynch Mob and Ted Nugent among others.
John Corabi was already an established singer in the rock world with bands like Angora and Scream before he joined Motley Crue in 1992 as their new lead singer. He recorded the critically acclaimed self titled album before Vince Neil returned in 1996.
Dizzy Reed is a multi-talented keyboard/vocalist who has been part of The Dead Daisies line-up since 2013.
Brian Tichy started drumming from age 8. He attended the prestigious Berklee College of Music from 1986-1990.
Throughout his career, rhythm guitarist David Lowy has extensively played with various Australian rock bands, including Red Phoenix, Mink and Doc Neeson’s Angels. Read
David Lowy – rhythm guitar
Richard Fortus – lead guitar
Dizzy Reed – keyboards
Marco Mendoza – bass
John Corabi – lead vocals
Brian Tichy – drums
Nikon D800E
SIGMA MACRO 70mm F2.8 EX DG for Nikon AF Mount
コムメリナ・エレクタ ‘グレイト・テキサス’
Commelina erecta L., 1753 ‘Great Texas’
(My Original Seedling & Selection)
Flower Size φ6cm
First published in Sp. Pl.: 41 (1753)
This species is accepted.
Confirmation Date: 07/28, 2024.
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Family: Commelinaceae (APG IV)
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Author:
Carl von Linnaeus (1707-1778)
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Publication:
Species Plantarum
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Collation:
1: 41
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Date of Publication:
1 May 1753
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The native range of this species is America, Tropical & S. Africa, Arabian Peninsula. It is a perennial or tuberous geophyte and grows primarily in the seasonally dry tropical biome. It is has environmental uses and social uses, as animal food and a medicine and for food.
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Native to:
Alabama, Angola, Argentina Northeast, Argentina Northwest, Arizona, Arkansas, Aruba, Bahamas, Belize, Benin, Bermuda, Bolivia, Botswana, Brazil North, Brazil Northeast, Brazil South, Brazil Southeast, Brazil West-Central, Burkina, Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Provinces, Cape Verde, Cayman Is., Central African Repu, Chad, Colombia, Colorado, Congo, Costa Rica, Cuba, Delaware, District of Columbia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Florida, Free State, French Guiana, Gambia, Georgia, Ghana, Guatemala, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Gulf of Guinea Is., Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Ivory Coast, Jamaica, Kansas, Kentucky, Kenya, KwaZulu-Natal, Leeward Is., Liberia, Louisiana, Malawi, Mali, Maryland, Mexico Central, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Northwest, Mexico Southeast, Mexico Southwest, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Mozambique, Namibia, Nebraska, Netherlands Antilles, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Nicaragua, Niger, Nigeria, North Carolina, Northern Provinces, Oklahoma, Panamá, Paraguay, Pennsylvania, Peru, Puerto Rico, Rhode I., Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Carolina, South Dakota, Southwest Caribbean, Sudan, Suriname, Swaziland, Tanzania, Tennessee, Texas, Togo, Trinidad-Tobago, Turks-Caicos Is., Uganda, Uruguay, Venezuela, Venezuelan Antilles, Virginia, West Virginia, Windward Is., Wisconsin, Wyoming, Yemen, Zaïre, Zimbabwe
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Introduced into:
Bangladesh, Chile Central, Japan, Palestine, Spain
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Annotation:
nom. & typ. cons. prop.
Type-Protolog
Locality:Habitat in Virginia
Type Specimens:
CTP: Herb. Dillenius 63 (OXF-Dill. HE_77-88)
Type discussion:Hassemer, G., D. Iamonico & L. A. Funez. 2018. (2631) Proposal to conserve the name Commelina erecta (Commelinaceae) with a conserved type. Taxon 67(4): 810.
LT: Dillenius, Hort. Eltham. t. 77, f. 88 (1732); ; LT designated by Clarke, Monogr. Phan. 3: ? (1881)
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Lifeform: Hemicr. or tuber geophyte
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Homotypic Names:
Commelina erecta L. var. typica Fernald, Rhodora 42: 438 (1940), not validly publ.
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Publications:
----------------
POWO follows these authorities in accepting this name:
Acevedo-Rodríguez, P. & Strong, M.T. (2005). Monocotyledons and Gymnosperms of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. Contributions from the United States National Herbarium 52: 1-415.
Akoègninou, A., van der Burg, W.J. & van der Maesen, L.J.G. (eds.) (2006). Flore Analytique du Bénin: 1-1034. Backhuys Publishers.
Brunel, J.F., Hiepo, P. & Scholz, H. (eds.) (1984). Flore Analytique du Togo Phanérogames: 1-751. GTZ, Eschborn.
Faden, R. (2012). Commelinaceae. Flora of Tropical East Africa: 1-244.
Figueiredo, E. & Smith, G.F. (2008). Plants of Angola. Strelitzia 22: 1-279. National Botanical Institute, Pretoria.
Gosline, G., Bidault, E., van der Burgt, X., Cahen, D., Challen, G., Condé, N., Couch, C., Couvreur, T.L.P., Dagallier, L.M.J., Darbyshire, I., Dawson, S., Doré, T.S., Goyder, D., Grall, A., Haba, P., Haba, P., Harris, D., Hind, D.J.N., Jongkind, & al. (2023). A Taxonomically-verified and Vouchered Checklist of the Vascular Plants of the Republic of Guinea. Nature, scientific data 10, Article number: 327: [1]-[12].
Govaerts, R. (1999). World Checklist of Seed Plants 3(1, 2a & 2b): 1-1532. MIM, Deurne.
Hassemer, G. (2018). Taxonomic and geographic notes on the neotropical Commelina (Commelinaceae). Webbia; Raccolta de Scritti Botanici 73: 23-53.
Hokche, O., Berry, P.E. & Huber, O. (eds.) (2008). Nuevo Catálogo de la Flora Vascular de Venezuela: 1-859. Fundación Instituto Botánico de Venezuela.
Idárraga-Piedrahita, A., Ortiz, R.D.C., Callejas Posada, R. & Merello, M. (eds.) (2011). Flora de Antioquia: Catálogo de las Plantas Vasculares 2: 1-939. Universidad de Antioquia, Medellín.
Jones, M. (1991). A checklist of Gambian plants: 1-33. Michael Jones, The Gambia College.
Knapp, W.M. & Naczi, R.F.C. (2021). Vascular plants of Maryland, USA. A comprehensive account of the state's botanical diversity. Smithsonian Contributions to Botany 113: 1-151.
López-Ferrari, A.R., Espejo-Serna, A. & Ceja-Romero, J. (2014). Flora de Veracruz 161: 1-127. Instituto Nacional de Investigaciones sobre Recursos Bióticos, Xalapa, Veracruz.
Nelson Sutherland, C.H. (2008). Catálogo de las plantes vasculares de Honduras. Espermatofitas: 1-1576. SERNA/Guaymuras, Tegucigalpa, Honduras.
Powell, A.M. & Worthington, R.D. (2018). Flowering plants of Trans-Pecos Texas and adjacent areas: 1-1444. BRIT Press.
Sarder, N.U. & Hassan, M.A. (eds.) (2018). Vascular flora of Chittagong and the Chittagong Hill Tracts 1: 1-897. Bangladesh National Herbarium, Dhaka.
Sita, P. & Moutsambote, J.-M. (2005). Catalogue des plantes vasculaires du Congo, ed. sept. 2005: 1-158. ORSTOM, Centre de Brazzaville.
Velayos, M., Aedo, C., Cabezas, F., de la Estrella, M., Barberá, P. & Fero, M. (eds.) (2014). Flora de Guinea Ecuatorial 11: 1-416. Consejo superior de investigaciones científicas, Real jardín botánico, Madrid.
Walderley, M.G.L., Shepherd, G.J., Melhem, T.S. & Giulietti, A.M. (eds.) (2005). Flora Fanerogâmica do Estado de São Paulo 4: 1-392. Instituto de Botânica, São Paulo.
de Moura Júnior, E.G. & al. (2015). Updated checklist of aquatic macrophytes from Northern Brazil. Acta Amazonica 45: 111-132.
von Raab-Straube, E. & Raus, T. (eds.) (2015). Euro+Med-Checklist notulae, 4. Willdenowia 45: 119-129.
----------------
Catálogo de Plantas y Líquenes de Colombia:
Bernal, R., Gradstein, S.R. & Celis, M. (eds.). 2015. Catálogo de plantas y líquenes de Colombia. Instituto de Ciencias Naturales, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Bogotá. catalogoplantasdecolombia.unal.edu.co
Flora of West Tropical Africa
Fernald in Rnodora 42: 436-441 (1940)
J. K. Morton in J. Linn. Soc. 60: 183 (1967).
Sp. Pl. 41 (1753)
----------------
Kew Backbone Distributions:
Acevedo-Rodríguez, P. & Strong, M.T. (2012). Catalogue of seed plants of the West Indies. Smithsonian Contributions to Botany 98: 1-1192.
Boudet, G., Lebrun, J.P. & Demange, R. (1986). Catalogue des plantes vasculaires du Mali: 1-465. Etudes d'Elevage et de Médecine Vétérinaire des Pays Tropicaux.
Brunel, J.F., Hiepo, P. & Scholz, H. (eds.) (1984). Flore Analytique du Togo Phanérogames: 1-751. GTZ, Eschborn.
Faden, R. (2012). Commelinaceae. Flora of Tropical East Africa: 1-244.
Gonzalez, F., Nelson Diaz, J. & Lowry, P. (1995). Flora Illustrada de San Andrés y Providencia: 1-281. Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Instituto de Ciencias Naturales, Colombia.
Hokche, O., Berry, P.E. & Huber, O. (eds.) (2008). Nuevo Catálogo de la Flora Vascular de Venezuela: 1-859. Fundación Instituto Botánico de Venezuela.
Jones, M. (1991). A checklist of Gambian plants: 1-33. Michael Jones, The Gambia College.
Sarder, N.U. & Hassan, M.A. (eds.) (2018). Vascular flora of Chittagong and the Chittagong Hill Tracts 1: 1-897. Bangladesh National Herbarium, Dhaka.
Sita, P. & Moutsambote, J.-M. (2005). Catalogue des plantes vasculaires du Congo, ed. sept. 2005: 1-158. ORSTOM, Centre de Brazzaville.
de Moura Júnior, E.G. & al. (2015). Updated checklist of aquatic macrophytes from Northern Brazil. Acta Amazonica 45: 111-132.
von Raab-Straube, E. & Raus, T. (eds.) (2015). Euro+Med-Checklist notulae, 4. Willdenowia 45: 119-129.
----------------
Flora of Somalia:
Flora Somalia, Vol 4, (1995) Author: by R. B. Faden [updated by M. Thulin 2008]
----------------
Useful Plants and Fungi of Colombia:
Bernal, R., Gradstein, S.R., & Celis, M. (eds.). (2020). Catálogo de Plantas y Líquenes de Colombia. v1.1. Universidad Nacional de Colombia. Dataset/Checklist. doi.org/10.15472/7avdhn
Burkill HM. (1995). The useful plants of west tropical Africa, Vols. 1-3. The useful plants of west tropical Africa, Vols 1-3.
Diazgranados et al. (2021). Catalogue of plants of Colombia. Useful Plants and Fungi of Colombia project. In prep.
Diazgranados, M., Allkin, B., Black N., Cámara-Leret, R., Canteiro C., Carretero J., Eastwood R., Hargreaves S., Hudson A., Milliken W., Nesbitt, M., Ondo, I., Patmore, K., Pironon, S., Turner, R., Ulian, T. (2020). World Checklist of Useful Plant Species. Produced by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Knowledge Network for Biocomplexity.
FPI (2021). Food Plants International. fms.cmsvr.com/fmi/webd/Food_Plants_World?homeurl=https://...
GBIF.org (2021). GBIF species matching tool. www.gbif.org/tools/species-lookup
GRIN (2021). Germplasm Resources Information Network from the United States Department of Agriculture. www.ars-grin.gov
IUCN (2021). The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2021-2. www.iucnredlist.org.
Instituto de Investigación de Recursos Biológicos Alexander von Humbodlt (2014). Plantas alimenticias y medicinales nativas de Colombia. 2567 registros, aportados por: Castellanos, C. (Contacto del recurso), Valderrama, N. (Creador del recurso, Autor), Bernal, Y. (Autor), García, N. (Autor). i2d.humboldt.org.co/ceiba/resource.do?r=ls_colombia_magno...
Instituto de Investigación de Recursos Biológicos Alexander von Humboldt (2015). Listado de especies de Productos No Maderables del caribe colombiano. 366 registros, aportados por: Garcia, H. (Contacto del Recurso), López Camacho, R. (Creador del recurso), Espitia Palencia, L. (Proveedor del metadatos). Versión 2.0. i2d.humboldt.org.co/ceiba/resource.do?r=le_bst-caribe_pla...
Instituto de Investigación de Recursos Biológicos Alexander von Humboldt (2019). Lista de especies vedadas por la resolución 213 de 1977. 8256 especies. i2d.humboldt.org.co/ceiba/resource.do?r=le_plantasprioriz...
Instituto de Investigación de Recursos Biológicos Alexander von Humboldt. (2014). Plantas alimenticias y medicinales nativas de Colombia. 2567 registros, aportados por: Castellanos, C. (Contacto del recurso), Valderrama, N. (Creador del recurso, Autor), Bernal, Y. (Autor), García, N. (Autor). i2d.humboldt.org.co/ceiba/resource.do?r=ls_colombia_magno...
Medicinal Plant Names Services (MPNS) v.10 (2021); mpns.kew.org
PROTA (2021). Plants Resources of Tropical Africa. prota4u.org/database
Plants for malaria, plants for fever: Medicinal species in Latin America, a bibliographic survey: Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
Ulian, T., Sacandé, M., Hudson, A., & Mattana, E. (2017). Conservation of indigenous plants to support community livelihoods: the MGU–Useful Plants Project. Journal of Environmental Planning and Management 60:668-683.
Willis, K.J. (ed.) (2017). State of the World’s Plants 2017. Report. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
-----------------------------------
This name is Accepted by:
Brunel, J.F., Hiepo, P. & Scholz, H. (eds.) (1984). Flore Analytique du Togo Phanérogames: 1-751. GTZ, Eschborn.
Jones, M. (1991). A checklist of Gambian plants: 1-33. Michael Jones, The Gambia College.
Govaerts, R. (1999). World Checklist of Seed Plants 3(1, 2a & 2b): 1-1532. MIM, Deurne.
Sita, P. & Moutsambote, J.-M. (2005). Catalogue des plantes vasculaires du Congo , ed. sept. 2005: 1-158. ORSTOM, Centre de Brazzaville.
Walderley, M.G.L., Shepherd, G.J., Melhem, T.S. & Giulietti, A.M. (eds.) (2005). Flora Fanerogâmica do Estado de São Paulo 4: 1-392. Instituto de Botânica, São Paulo.
Acevedo-Rodríguez, P. & Strong, M.T. (2005). Monocotyledons and Gymnosperms of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. Contributions from the United States National Herbarium 52: 1-415.
Akoègninou, A., van der Burg, W.J. & van der Maesen, L.J.G. (eds.) (2006). Flore Analytique du Bénin: 1-1034. Backhuys Publishers.
Nelson Sutherland, C.H. (2008). Catálogo de las plantes vasculares de Honduras. Espermatofitas: 1-1576. SERNA/Guaymuras, Tegucigalpa, Honduras.
Hokche, O., Berry, P.E. & Huber, O. (eds.) (2008). Nuevo Catálogo de la Flora Vascular de Venezuela: 1-859. Fundación Instituto Botánico de Venezuela.
Figueiredo, E. & Smith, G.F. (2008). Plants of Angola. Strelitzia 22: 1-279. National Botanical Institute, Pretoria.
Idárraga-Piedrahita, A., Ortiz, R.D.C., Callejas Posada, R. & Merello, M. (eds.) (2011). Flora de Antioquia: Catálogo de las Plantas Vasculares 2: 1-939. Universidad de Antioquia, Medellín.
Faden, R. (2012). Commelinaceae. Flora of Tropical East Africa: 1-244.
López-Ferrari, A.R., Espejo-Serna, A. & Ceja-Romero, J. (2014). Flora de Veracruz 161: 1-127. Instituto Nacional de Investigaciones sobre Recursos Bióticos, Xalapa, Veracruz.
Velayos, M., Aedo, C., Cabezas, F., de la Estrella, M., Barberá, P. & Fero, M. (eds.) (2014). Flora de Guinea Ecuatorial 11: 1-416. Consejo superior de investigaciones científicas, Real jardín botánico, Madrid.
von Raab-Straube, E. & Raus, T. (eds.) (2015). Euro+Med-Checklist notulae, 4. Willdenowia 45: 119-129.
de Moura Júnior, E.G. & al. (2015). Updated checklist of aquatic macrophytes from Northern Brazil. Acta Amazonica 45: 111-132.
Sarder, N.U. & Hassan, M.A. (eds.) (2018). Vascular flora of Chittagong and the Chittagong Hill Tracts 1: 1-897. Bangladesh National Herbarium, Dhaka.
Hassemer, G. (2018). Taxonomic and geographic notes on the neotropical Commelina (Commelinaceae). Webbia; Raccolta de Scritti Botanici 73: 23-53.
-----------------------------------
A perennial plant that grows naturally in the central and southeastern parts of the USA. I have an individual of Texas ancestry.
Place it in a bright half-day shade that avoids the west sun, not in the shade.
The flowers bloom for a long time, with a flowering period of May to October. The cool autumn has a darker flower color, and the flower color is slightly lighter in the hot season when the temperature exceeds 30 degrees Celsius.
It is a perennial plant, and if managed indoors in winter, rhizomes will remain, and in spring it will sprout again and bloom from early summer to late autumn.
If possible, replant with new soil every year to divide the stock. The reason is that continuous cropping disorders are likely to occur.
As fertilizer, a proper amount of slow-release fertilizer is applied as the main fertilizer, or 1000 diluted liquid chemical fertilizer is given once a week.
美國中南部～東南部に自生する多年草～宿根草。テキサスの系統が手許にあります。
置き場所は、あまり日蔭ではなく西日の避けられる明るい半日蔭に置きます。
開花期間が5～10月くらいまでと、長く花が咲きます。涼しい秋のほうが濃い色の花色になり、気温が30度を超える暑い時期は花色はやや薄くなります。
多年草で冬は屋内で管理すると根茎が残り、春にはまた芽が出て初夏～晩秋に開花します。
出来れば毎年新しい用土で株分けを兼ねて植え替えを行います。連作障害が出やすいのがその理由です。
肥料は元肥として緩効性肥料を適量施肥するか、液体化学肥料の1000希釈液を週に一度与えています。
Issue #147 June 2011
Its was pretty cool to see the photo I took of Dustin's Mazdaspeed3 under the Longshots section of the June 2011 issue of Import Tuner. Congrats to the others as well that were featured.
Original Photo: www.flickr.com/photos/ronaldo86/5278271971/
The Postcard
A postally unused postcard published by C.T. They state on the divided back of the card that it is a genuine Curteich-Chicago 'C.T. Art-Colortone' postcard. (Reg. U.S. Patent Office).
I don't know why they bothered to patent it - the print quality is awful.
C.T. state on the back of the card that a One Cent stamp is required for postage. They also state:
'The Bridal Altar is one of the oldest
and most historic features in Mammoth
Cave.
Many couples have been married at
this spot'.
Mammoth Cave National Park
Mammoth Cave National Park is an American national park in west-central Kentucky, encompassing portions of Mammoth Cave, the longest-known cave system in the world.
Since the 1972 unification of Mammoth Cave with the even-longer system under Flint Ridge to the north, the official name of the system has been the Mammoth–Flint Ridge Cave System.
The park was established as a national park on the 1st. July 1941, and a World Heritage Site on the 27th. October 1981.
The Green River runs through the park. Mammoth Cave is the world's longest known cave system with more than 400 miles (640 km) of surveyed passageways. It is nearly twice as long as the second-longest cave system, Mexico's Sac Actun underwater cave.
The Geology of Mammoth Cave
Mammoth Cave developed in thick Mississippian-aged limestone strata capped by a layer of sandstone, which has made the system remarkably stable. New discoveries and connections add several miles to the cave's known length each year.
At one valley bottom in the southern region of the park, a massive sinkhole has developed. Known as Cedar Sink, the sinkhole features a small river entering one side and disappearing back underground at the other side.
Visiting Mammoth Cave
The National Park Service offers several cave tours to visitors. Some notable features of the cave, such as Grand Avenue, Frozen Niagara, and Fat Man's Misery, can be seen on lighted tours ranging from one to six hours in length.
Two tours, lit only by visitor-carried paraffin lamps, are popular alternatives to the electric-lit routes. Several "wild" tours venture away from the developed parts of the cave into muddy crawls and dusty tunnels.
The Echo River Tour, one of the cave's most famous attractions, took visitors on a boat ride along an underground river. The tour was discontinued for logistic and environmental reasons in the early 1990's.
Mammoth Cave in Prehistory
The story of human beings in relation to Mammoth Cave spans five thousand years. Several sets of Native American remains have been recovered from Mammoth Cave, or other nearby caves in the region, in both the 19th. and 20th. centuries. Most mummies found represent examples of intentional burial, with ample evidence of pre-Columbian funerary practice.
An exception to purposeful burial was discovered when in 1935 the remains of an adult male were discovered under a large boulder. The boulder had shifted and settled onto the victim, a pre-Columbian miner, who had disturbed the rubble supporting it.
The remains of the ancient victim were named "Lost John" and exhibited to the public into the 1970's, when they were interred in a secret location in Mammoth Cave for reasons of preservation as well as emerging political sensitivities with respect to the public display of Native American remains.
Research beginning in the late 1950's led by Patty Jo Watson, of Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, has done much to illuminate the lives of the late Archaic and early Woodland peoples who explored and exploited caves in the region.
Preserved by the constant cave environment, dietary evidence yielded carbon dates enabling Watson to determine the age of the specimens. An analysis of their content allows determination of the relative content of plant and meat in the diet of either culture over a period spanning several thousand years. This analysis indicates a timed transition from a hunter-gatherer culture to plant domestication and agriculture.
Another technique employed in archaeological research at Mammoth Cave, was experimental archaeology, in which modern explorers were sent into the cave using the technology that was employed by the ancient cultures whose leftover implements lie discarded in many parts of the cave. The goal was to gain insight into the problems faced by the ancient people who explored the cave.
Ancient human remains and artifacts within the caves are protected by various federal and state laws. One of the most basic facts to be determined about a newly discovered artifact is its precise location and situation. Even slightly moving a prehistoric artifact contaminates it from a research perspective. Explorers are properly trained not to disturb archaeological evidence, and some areas of the cave remain out-of-bounds for even seasoned explorers, unless the subject of the trip is archaeological research on that area.
Besides the remains that have been discovered in the portion of the cave accessible through the Historic Entrance of Mammoth Cave, the remains of cane torches used by Native Americans, as well as other artifacts such as drawings, gourd fragments, and woven grass moccasin slippers are found in the Salts Cave section of the system in Flint Ridge.
Though there is undeniable proof of their existence and use of the cave, there is no evidence of further use past the archaic period. Experts and scientists have no answer as to why this is, making it one of the greatest mysteries of Mammoth Cave to this day.
Earliest Written History
The 31,000-acre (13,000 ha) tract known as the "Pollard Survey" was sold by indenture on the 10th. September 1791 in Philadelphia by William Pollard. 19,897 acres (8,052 ha) of the Pollard Survey between the North bank of Bacon Creek and the Green River were purchased by Thomas Lang, Jr..
Lang was a British American merchant from Yorkshire, England. He bought the land on the 3rd. June 1796 for £4,116, but the land was lost to a local county tax claim during the War of 1812.
Legend has it that the first European to visit Mammoth Cave was either John Houchin or his brother Francis Houchin, in 1797. While hunting, Houchin pursued a wounded bear to the cave's large entrance opening near the Green River.
Some Houchin Family tales have John Decatur "Johnny Dick" Houchin as the discoverer of the cave, but this is highly unlikely because Johnny Dick was only 10 years old in 1797, and was unlikely to be out hunting bears at such a tender age.
His father John is the more likely candidate from that branch of the family tree, but the most probable candidate for discoverer of Mammoth Cave is Francis "Frank" Houchin, whose land was much closer to the cave entrance than his brother John's.
There is also the argument that their brother Charles Houchin, who was known as a great hunter and trapper, was the man who shot the bear and chased it into the cave. The shadow over Charles's claim is the fact that he was residing in Illinois until 1801.
Contrary to this story is Brucker and Watson's 'The Longest Cave', which asserts that the cave was certainly known before that time. Caves in the area were certainly known before the discovery of the entrance to Mammoth Cave. Even Francis Houchin had a cave entrance on his land very near the bend in the Green River known as the Turnhole, which is less than a mile from the main entrance to Mammoth Cave.
The land containing this historic entrance was first surveyed and registered in 1798 under the name of Valentine Simons. Simons began exploiting Mammoth Cave for its saltpeter reserves.
Mammoth Cave in the 19th. Century
In partnership with Valentine Simon, various other individuals owned the land through the War of 1812, when Mammoth Cave's saltpeter reserves became significant due to the Jefferson Embargo Act of 1807 which prohibited all foreign trade.
The blockade starved the American military of saltpeter and therefore gunpowder. As a result, the domestic price of saltpeter rose and production based on nitrates extracted from caves such as Mammoth Cave became more lucrative.
In July 1812, the cave was purchased from Simon and other owners by Charles Wilkins and an investor from Philadelphia named Hyman Gratz. Soon the cave was being mined for calcium nitrate on an industrial scale, utilizing a labor force of 70 slaves to build and operate the soil leaching apparatus, as well as to haul the raw soil from deep in the cave to the central processing site.
A half-interest in the cave changed hands for ten thousand dollars (equivalent to over $150,000 in 2020). After the war when prices fell, the workings were abandoned and it became a minor tourist attraction centering on a Native American mummy discovered nearby.
When Wilkins died his estate's executors sold his interest in the cave to Gratz. In the spring of 1838, the cave was sold by the Gratz brothers to Franklin Gorin, who intended to operate Mammoth Cave purely as a tourist attraction, the bottom long having since fallen out of the saltpeter market.
Gorin was a slave owner, and used his slaves as tour guides. One of these slaves would make a number of important contributions to human knowledge of the cave, and become one of Mammoth Cave's most celebrated historical figures.
Stephen Bishop, an African-American slave and a guide to the cave during the 1840's and 1850's, was one of the first people to make extensive maps of the cave, and named many of the cave's features.
Stephen Bishop was introduced to Mammoth Cave in 1838 by Franklin Gorin. Gorin wrote, after Bishop's death:
"I placed a guide in the cave – the celebrated and
great Stephen, and he aided in making the discoveries.
He was the first person who ever crossed the Bottomless
Pit, and he, myself and another person whose name I have forgotten were the only persons ever at the bottom of
Gorin's Dome to my knowledge.
After Stephen crossed the Bottomless Pit, we discovered
all that part of the cave now known beyond that point. Previous to those discoveries, all interest centered in
what is known as the 'Old Cave' ... but now many of the
points are but little known, although as Stephen was wont
to say, they were 'grand, gloomy and peculiar'."
In 1839, Dr. John Croghan of Louisville bought the Mammoth Cave Estate, including Bishop and its other slaves from their previous owner, Franklin Gorin. Croghan briefly ran an ill-fated tuberculosis hospital in the cave in 1842-43, the vapors of which he believed would cure his patients. A widespread epidemic of tuberculosis ultimately claimed the life of Dr. Croghan in 1849.
Throughout the 19th. century, the fame of Mammoth Cave grew so much that the cave became an international sensation. As a result of the growing renown of the cave, the cave boasted famous visitors such as actor Edwin Booth (his brother, John Wilkes Booth, assassinated Abraham Lincoln in 1865), singer Jenny Lind (who visited the cave on the 5th. April 1851), and violinist Ole Bull who together gave a concert in one of the caves. Two chambers in the caves have since been known as "Booth's Amphitheatre" and "Ole Bull's Concert Hall".
By 1859, when the Louisville and Nashville Railroad opened its main line between these cities, Colonel Larkin J. Procter owned the Mammoth Cave Estate. He also owned the stagecoach line that ran between Glasgow Junction (Park City) and the Mammoth Cave Estate. This line transported tourists to Mammoth Caves until 1886, when he established the Mammoth Cave Railroad.
Early 20th. century: The Kentucky Cave Wars
The difficulties of farming life in the hardscrabble, poor soil of the cave-country influenced local owners of smaller nearby caves to see opportunities for commercial exploitation, particularly given the success of Mammoth Cave as a tourist attraction.
The "Kentucky Cave Wars" was a period of bitter competition between local cave owners for tourist money. Broad tactics of deception were used to lure visitors away from their intended destination to other private show caves. Misleading signs were placed along the roads leading to the Mammoth Cave. A typical strategy during the early days of automobile travel involved representatives (known as "cappers") of other private show caves hopping aboard a tourist's car's running board, and leading the passengers to believe that Mammoth Cave was closed, quarantined, caved in or otherwise inaccessible.
In 1906, Mammoth Cave became accessible by steamboat with the construction of a lock and dam at Brownsville, Kentucky.
In 1908, Max Kämper, a young German mining engineer, arrived at the cave by way of New York. Kämper had just graduated from technical college and his family had sent him on a trip abroad as a graduation present. Originally intending to spend two weeks at Mammoth Cave, Kämper spent several months.
With the assistance of Stephen Bishop, Kämper produced a remarkably accurate instrumental survey of many kilometers of Mammoth Cave, including many new discoveries. Reportedly, Kämper also produced a corresponding survey of the land surface overlying the cave: this information was to be useful in the opening of other entrances to the cave, as soon happened with the Violet City entrance.
The Croghan family suppressed the topographic element of Kämper's map, and it is not known to survive today, although the cave map portion of Kämper's work stands as a triumph of accurate cave cartography: not until the early 1960's and the advent of the modern exploration period would these passages be surveyed and mapped with greater accuracy.
Kämper returned to Berlin, and from the point of view of the Mammoth Cave country, disappeared entirely. It was not until the turn of the 21st. century that a group of German tourists, after visiting the cave, researched Kämper's family and determined his fate: the young Kämper was killed in trench warfare in the Great War on the 10th. December 1916 at the Battle of the Somme.
Famed French cave explorer Édouard-Alfred Martel visited the cave for three days in October 1912. Without access to the closely held survey data, Martel was permitted to make barometric observations in the cave for the purpose of determining the relative elevation of different locations. He identified different levels of the cave, and correctly noted that the level of the Echo River within the cave was controlled by that of the Green River on the surface.
Martel lamented the 1906 construction of the dam at Brownsville, pointing out that this made a full hydrogeologic study of the cave impossible. Among his precise descriptions of Mammoth Cave, Martel suggested that Mammoth Cave was connected to Salts and Colossal Caves: this would not be proven correct until 60 years after Martel's visit.
In the early 1920's, George Morrison created, via blasting, a number of entrances to Mammoth Cave on land not owned by the Croghan Estate. Absent the data from the Croghan's secretive surveys, performed by Kämper, Bishop, and others, which had not been published in a form suitable for determining the geographic extent of the cave, it was now conclusively shown that the Croghans had been for years exhibiting portions of Mammoth Cave which were not under land they owned. Lawsuits were filed and, for a time, different entrances to the cave were operated in direct competition with each other.
In the early 20th. century, Floyd Collins spent ten years exploring the Flint Ridge Cave System (the most important legacy of these explorations was the discovery of Floyd Collins' Crystal Cave and exploration in Salts Cave) before dying at Sand Cave, Kentucky, in 1925.
While exploring Sand Cave, Floyd dislodged a rock onto his leg while in a tight crawl-way and was unable to be rescued before dying of starvation. Attempts to rescue Collins created a mass media sensation; the resulting publicity would draw prominent Kentuckians to initiate a movement which would soon result in the formation of Mammoth Cave National Park.
The National Park Movement (1926–1941)
As the last of the Croghan heirs died, momentum grew among wealthy citizens of Kentucky for the establishment of Mammoth Cave National Park. Private citizens formed the Mammoth Cave National Park Association in 1924. The park was authorized on the 25th. May 1926.
Donated funds were used to purchase some farmsteads in the region, while other tracts within the proposed national park boundary were acquired by right of eminent domain. In contrast to the formation of other national parks in the sparsely populated American West, thousands of people were forcibly relocated in the process of forming Mammoth Cave National Park. Often eminent domain proceedings were bitter, with landowners paid what were considered to be inadequate sums. The resulting acrimony still resonates within the region to this day.
The New Entrance, closed to visitors since 1941, was reopened on the 26th. December 1951, becoming the entrance used for the beginning of the Frozen Niagara tour.
The longest cave (1954–1972)
By 1954, Mammoth Cave National Park's land holdings encompassed all lands within its outer boundary with the exception of two privately held tracts. One of these, the old Lee Collins farm, had been sold to Harry Thomas of Horse Cave, Kentucky, whose grandson, William "Bill" Austin, operated Collins Crystal Cave as a show cave in direct competition with the national park, which was forced to maintain roads leading to the property. Condemnation and purchase of the Crystal Cave property seemed only a matter of time.
In February 1954, a two-week expedition under the auspices of the National Speleological Society was organized at the invitation of Austin: this expedition became known as C-3, or the Collins Crystal Cave Expedition.
The C-3 expedition drew public interest, first from a photo essay published by Robert Halmi in the July 1954 issue of True Magazine, and later from the publication of a double first-person account of the expedition, 'The Caves Beyond: The Story of the Collins Crystal Cave Expedition' by Joe Lawrence, Jr. (then president of the National Speleological Society) and Roger Brucker.
The expedition proved conclusively that passages in Crystal Cave extended toward Mammoth Cave proper, at least exceeding the Crystal Cave property boundaries. However, this information was closely held by the explorers: it was feared that the National Park Service might forbid exploration were this known.
In 1955 Crystal Cave was connected by survey with Unknown Cave, the first connection in the Flint Ridge system.
Some of the participants in the C-3 expedition wished to continue their explorations past the conclusion of the C-3 Expedition, and organized as the Flint Ridge Reconnaissance. This organization was incorporated in 1957 as the Cave Research Foundation. The organization sought to legitimize the cave explorers' activity through the support of original academic and scientific research. Notable scientists who studied Mammoth Cave during this period include Patty Jo Watson.
In March 1961, the Crystal Cave property was sold to the National Park Service for $285,000. At the same time, the Great Onyx Cave property, the only other remaining private inholding, was purchased for $365,000. The Cave Research Foundation was permitted to continue their exploration through a Memorandum of Understanding with the National Park Service.
Colossal Cave was connected by survey to Salts Cave in 1960, and in 1961 Colossal-Salts cave was similarly connected to Crystal-Unknown cave, creating a single cave system under much of Flint Ridge. By 1972, the Flint Ridge Cave System had been surveyed to a length of 86.5 miles (139.2 km), making it the longest cave in the world.
During the 1960's, the Cave Research Foundation (CRF) exploration and mapping teams found passageways in the Flint Ridge Cave System that penetrated under Houchins Valley and came within 800 feet (240 m) of known passages in Mammoth Cave.
In 1972, CRF Chief Cartographer John Wilcox pursued an aggressive program to finally connect the caves, fielding several expeditions from the Flint Ridge side as well as exploring leads in Mammoth Cave.
On a July 1972 trip, deep in the Flint Ridge Cave System, Patricia Crowther—with her slight frame of 115 pounds (52 kg)—crawled through a narrow canyon later dubbed the "Tight Spot", which acted as a filter for larger cavers.
A subsequent trip past the Tight Spot on the 30th. August 1972, by Wilcox, Crowther, Richard Zopf, and Tom Brucker discovered the name "Pete H" inscribed on the wall of a river passage with an arrow pointing in the direction of Mammoth Cave. The name is believed to have been carved by Warner P. "Pete" Hanson, who was active in exploring the cave in the 1930's. Hanson had been killed in World War II. The passage was named Hanson's Lost River by the explorers.
Finally, on the 9th. September 1972, a six-person CRF team of Wilcox, Crowther, Zopf, Gary Eller, Stephen Wells, and Cleveland Pinnix (a National Park Service ranger) followed Hanson's Lost River downstream to discover its connection with Echo River in Cascade Hall of Mammoth Cave.
With this linking of the Flint Ridge and Mammoth Cave systems, the "Everest of Speleology" had been climbed. The integrated cave system contained 144.4 miles (232.4 km) of surveyed passages and had fourteen entrances.
Recent Discoveries
Further connections between Mammoth Cave and smaller caves or cave systems have followed, notably to Proctor/Morrison Cave beneath nearby Joppa Ridge in 1979.
Proctor Cave was discovered by Jonathan Doyle, a Union Army deserter during the Civil War, and was later owned by the Mammoth Cave Railroad, before being explored by the CRF. Morrison cave was discovered by George Morrison in the 1920's. This connection pushed the frontier of Mammoth exploration southeastward.
At the same time, discoveries made outside the park by an independent group called the Central Kentucky Karst Coalition or CKKC resulted in the survey of tens of miles in Roppel Cave east of the park.
Discovered in 1976, Roppel Cave was briefly on the list of the nation's longest caves before it was connected to the Proctor/Morrison's section of the Mammoth Cave System on the 10th. September 1983. The connection was made by two mixed parties of CRF and CKKC explorers. Each party entered through a separate entrance and met in the middle before continuing in the same direction to exit at the opposite entrance. The resulting total surveyed length was near 300 miles (480 km).
On the 19th. March 2005, a connection into the Roppel Cave portion of the system was surveyed from a small cave under Eudora Ridge, adding approximately three miles to the known length of the Mammoth Cave System.
The newly found entrance to the cave, now termed the "Hoover Entrance", had been discovered in September 2003, by Alan Canon and James Wells. Incremental discoveries since then have pushed the total to more than 400 miles (640 km).
It is certain that many more miles of cave passages await discovery in the region. Discovery of new natural entrances is a rare event: the primary mode of discovery involves the pursuit of side passages identified during routine systematic exploration of cave passages entered from known entrances.
Related and Nearby Caves
At least two other massive cave systems lie short distances from Mammoth Cave: the Fisher Ridge Cave System and the Martin Ridge Cave System.
The Fisher Ridge Cave System was discovered in January 1981 by a group of Michigan cavers associated with the Detroit Urban Grotto of the National Speleological Society. So far, the Fisher Ridge Cave System has been mapped to 125 miles (201 km).
In 1976, Rick Schwartz discovered a large cave south of the Mammoth Cave park boundary. This cave became known as the Martin Ridge Cave System in 1996, as new exploration connected the 3 nearby caves of Whigpistle Cave (Schwartz's original entrance), Martin Ridge Cave, and Jackpot Cave.
As of 2018, the Martin Ridge Cave System had been mapped to a length of 34 miles (55 km), and exploration continues.
Biology and Ecosystem
The following species of bats inhabit the caverns: Indiana bat, gray bat, little brown bat, big brown bat, and the eastern pipistrelle bat.
All together, these and more rare bat species such as the eastern small-footed bat had estimated populations of 9–12 million just in the Historic Section.
While these species still exist in Mammoth Cave, their numbers are now no more than a few thousand at best. Ecological restoration of this portion of Mammoth Cave, and facilitating the return of bats, is an ongoing effort. Not all bat species here inhabit the cave; the red bat is a forest-dweller, and is found underground only rarely.
Other animals which inhabit the caves include: two genera of crickets, a cave salamander two genera of eyeless cave fish, a cave crayfish, and a cave shrimp.
Common fossils of the cave include crinoids, blastoids, and gastropods. The Mississippian limestone has yielded fossils of more than a dozen species of shark. In 2020, scientists reported the discovery of part of a Saivodus Striatus, a species comparable in size to a modern great white shark.
The Mammoth Cave Name
The cave's name refers to the large width and length of the passages connecting to the Rotunda just inside the entrance. The name was used long before the extensive cave system was more fully explored and mapped, to reveal a mammoth length of passageways.
No fossils of the woolly mammoth have ever been found in Mammoth Cave, and the name of the cave has nothing to do with this extinct mammal.
Currently Available Tours
Currently (2022) available tours operating in Mammoth Cave are:
-- Accessible Tour
-- Cleaveland Avenue Tour
-- Discovery Self-Guided
-- Domes and Dripstones Tour
-- Extended Historic Tour
-- Frozen Niagara Tour
-- Gothic Avenue Tour
-- Grand Avenue Tour
-- Grand Historic Tour
-- Great Onyx Lantern Tour
-- Historic Tour
-- Mammoth Passage Tour
-- River Styx Tour
-- Star Chamber Tour
-- Violet City Lantern Tour
-- Wondering Woods Tours
This photo of rice growing in Southern Brazil has been published online in a Rice Today article, by the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), called Country Snapshots: Brazil, in Rice Today
Great stuff! My 365 project was published on to an amazing magazine called ERRR and a great friend of mine, Elen Tinoco took great pics of the mag! Please check out her stuff, the magazine's stuff, and get super inspired :D
It sucks I still haven't gotten my hands on the mag tho :/
Market Makers of Philippine Equities todate
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To the Clueless.. What on earth is BANCOM?
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By Flor G. Tarriela
Published: July 11, 2013
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Recently, I attended the book launch of BANCOM MEMOIRS, a story of the rise and fall of BANCOM by Sixto K. Roxas III, “SKR.” From his perspective, “BANCOM’s story is not the banal story of a financial corporation that was modestly established, rose to great size and prominence and then faded in oblivion. It is an account of the ambitious attempt to build on the platform of a modern business corporation an institution committed to serving the needs of communities at every stage of development or underdevelopment. As it sought this wild vision, it brought together and motivated a corps of some of the most brilliant, creative and aggressive young men and women the country has seen, to shape an organization with an esprit that is still remembered as a Camelot – and it almost succeeded. “
Bancom’s Beginnings
What is the animal or puzzle that is BANCOM? What is its “tragic mystique”? How did it rise so fast from its beginning in 1964 (not just known in the Philippines but outside as well) and yet fall dramatically in 1981, after 17 years of existence? What was right in BANCOM and what went wrong? What lessons can we learn from this?
BANCOM started as a joint venture, an investment bank between BANkers Trust (an American bank) and COMmercial Bank and Trust Co. (CBTC, a local bank) with P7-million capital in 1964 with Sixto Roxas as President/CEO. Wash Sycip, well known to both parties, introduced them. CBTC was then ran by bankers Manuel Marquez and Augusto Barcelon who both established their banking careers in PNB. Mr. Wash is currently a director in PNB.
Sixto K.Roxas (SKR)
One can’t talk or remember BANCOM without SKR. Francis Estrada, in his introduction at the book launch, said “it is not easy to describe an individual as complex, brilliant and yes HUMAN as SKR. SKR has traveled far and wide in the journey of human experience, and has an incredibly high highs and yes a number of low lows.” Ray Orosa said that SKR is the “pioneering spirit behind the institution and if he had a problem, it was “he was way ahead of his time.” Art Aguilar who wrote “The Tragic Mystique of BANCOM said “SKR’s personal genius and charisma was intertwined with BANCOM” and Vic Macalingcad calls SKR the “father of the money and capital market of the Philippines.”
Bancom’s People
SKR’s original team were: Rolly Gapud who handled financial consultancy, Louie Villafuerte legal engineering, Ray Ilusorio money and capital markets desk. All three were 1973 TOYM awardees. Another TOYM awardee, former Secretary of Finance Ramon del Rosario, Jr. said “Bancom was every young man’s dream of a launching pad for a career in finance. It had the reputation of innovation and daring. It had unquestioned integrity. And it had as head one with a unique combination of genius and charisma. It was eminently successful, and even foreign governments sought its advice and assistance.”
BANCOM was the training ground for leadership in Philippine finance. In so short a history, it had the most number of TOYM awardees in a single business organization: SKR, former Finance Secretary Jose Pardo, Manny Pangilinan, Fernando Balatbat, and add to these, BANCOM alumni occupying key positions in financial and corporate world.
In SKR’s memoirs, he said that “Bancom attracted a corps of intelligent, creative, aggressive and ambitious young men and women fresh out of college or graduate school, with little experience because it was in its way a learning organization, a center for post graduate education where one midget learn innovative finance doing real transactions with real money. In Bancom, these men and women believed there was nothing they could not do… the slogan was: THE DIFFICULT WE DO RIGHT AWAY, THE IMPOSSIBLE TAKES A WHILE LONGER.” We learn what we don’t know or have not done before and nothing was really impossible.
Evelyn Singson, Chairman of BANCOM Alumni Inc. (BALI) said: “BANCOM was a company of contradictions. With so many things going on and so many people doing different things, it was almost impossible to know everything. We were so independent yet so inter-dependent. We knew so much, yet we knew so little. We were competitors yet collaborators. We were responsible yet irresponsible. It was an organization that kept challenging us to be better than ourselves. It was a workplace where everyone was driven and serious, yet it provided a workplace of fun, friendship and family.”
Thank you dear SKR for my first job right after Masters from UCLA. Investment research with Mandy Eduque as my first boss and later in investment service with Lito Manahan/Francis Moran. This was when Bancom was on its upward trajectory. I value the experience that has opened doors for me that when I joined Citibank later, having come from the premier investment bank, I was given the title of “Financial Engineering Coordinator.”
Bancom’s Beginning of the End
So what went wrong? What lessons can we learn from BANCOM? If Citi is the University of Banking, Josue Camba, a BALI trustee, says he is from UE, the University of Experience. (SKR upon hearing this, sent him off to Harvard to round up his training). Josh and Cynthia Picazo were the able emcees for the book launch, a very well attended affair of BANCOM alumni and friends that SKR said, “it is as if I can see my life passing me by.”
Manny Tordesillas, BALI President said “as the saying goes, failure is the better teacher than success.” He said: “Common to the failure of these financial institutions were fundamental management issues such as poor asset quality, asset-liability mismatches, high gearing, and in most cases, excessive risk-taking. But the straw that usually breaks the camel’s back is oftentimes the hubris that comes along when we, as money managers or investment bankers, having created innovative financial products or having command of substantial financial resources or having the ability to raise billions of pesos or dollars for our customers, ourselves begin to believe that we are the new masters of the universe. It is this feeling of invincibility that we all need to check in ourselves from time to time. Otherwise, history simply will repeat itself.” Hopefully, the BANCOM memoirs of SKR will shed light on what went wrong and learn from these lessons.
SKR opened the book with “Oh Lord , help me… to speak out spontaneously and say what I sincerely want readers of these memoirs to derive from it. I am writing to leave as a legacy the lessons from my over four score years of life so far. Every life is meant to offer a unique contribution to the forming of the Mystical Body of Christ. Each person has qualities that make him unique and that uniqueness impose on each individual the responsibility to do everything possible to realize the full glory of his potential”.
SKR closed the memoirs saying he feels inadequate. And he concluded his speech about the final lesson to all. It is about the vine and the branches where the Lord said ... “I am the vine you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him bears much fruit, for without Me you can do nothing”. This is the TRUTH and a good lesson to all of us.
Advance happy birthday greetings to dear SKR who will be turning 86 on August 6. Thank you for everything and may the Lord bless you even more abundantly! More power to you!
The BANCOM book project was made possible by the generous support of Manny V. Pangilinan and edited by Danding Yotoko. For more on the BANCOM Memoirs, do contact BALI’s dependable secretary, Nenette Lee at 0917-8126533.
Right: Original vintage Lyrica
Left: English Adaptation
A few months ago Digital Manga started a Kickstater Project to publish UNICO in English, they finally started shipping the final product recently. Mine arrived today!
I have a couple of original UNICO Lyrica issues, so I thought it might be useful to take some comparison shots. My lighting options tonight were poor, so I apologize if these look slightly off. But the general points I wanted to show are still clearly visible.
The most striking differences are the lower saturation of color in the English version, thought this may just be a byproduct of the paper choice, as you can see it's not very obvious, actually it is more obvious in person that in these photos.
One oddity I noticed is that all of the women/people have red hair, when in actuality, in the original, there is a variety of brunette, blonde, and red hair. In the English version all the hair colors are given the same red color. I'm not sure why this is. (please note that the brown hair in my original version looks slightly reddish due to overall aged yellowing/foxing of the pages).
I didn't include a photo of the next one, but I also noticed a flaw in one of the artwork panels of the original (it doesn't seem to be a flaw with my issue, but in the actual artwork in general). If this flaw is indeed part of the original, it has been edited out of the English version. This is not a very big deal but I though it might be worth noting that they seem to have been very thorough in cleaning up all of the artwork for the English version. :)
Overall I'm happy with the quality of the English version (I haven't read it yet, I'm only referring to the artwork, not the text or translation). Some scenes which appear very vibrant and rich in the original are more obviously washed out in the English which was a little dissappointing, but I would still have backed the project and I am still very happy with this book. It's a very high quality book :) The cover is especially nice, as are the stickers that came with mine.
For some reason I thought that it would be a hardcover and as large as the original Lyrica format (some margins have been trimmed/cropped btw, they are included, but not as "full bleed" as the Lyrica pages). Though now that I think of that, the lack of the original full bleed may be why they had to crop those margins a bit, so I don't rate that as a flaw. I think they said they were working from the original Lyrica artwork? I'm not 100% sure but for some reason that's the impression I got as the project was going along.
So, overall I'm happy with this, and super excited. I can't wait to sit down and read it! I plan to also read it to my daughter when she is old enough to understand. :)
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La quinta edizione del festival organizzato da Wired Italia. Due lunghi fine settimana in cui vivere l’innovazione nell’economia, nella scienza, nella politica, nell’intrattenimento, nella cultura. Milano e Firenze si trasformano per un fine settimana nel luna park della scienza e della tecnologia. Oltre 150 relatori, performance artistiche, laboratori di stampa 3D, droni in volo, videogame, film, documentari, speed date sul lavoro, maratone di coding e workshop per tutte le età. A Milano da venerdì 26 a domenica 28 maggio ai Giardini Indro Montanelli.
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ore 10:00
Come si combatte l’Isis (sui social)
Speaker
Abdalaziz Alhamza - Fondatore Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently
Abdalaziz Alhamza, nato a Raqqa nel 1991, è un giornalista e attivista siriano, che oggi vive a Berlino. È fondatore e portavoce del progetto Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently (RBSS), gruppo di citizen journalism fondato dall’esilio in Turchia, che informa sulle violenze compiute da Isis in Siria, grazie alle informazioni passate da cittadini rimasti all’interno della città. Nel gennaio 2016 l’International Business Times ha descritto RBSS come “la più credibile fonte di informazioni dall’interno di Raqqa”.
Alhamza è laureato in biologia e da studente ha organizzato numerose proteste contro il governo siriano. È stato arrestato varie volte dal regime e più volte ha ricevuto minacce per la sua attività da Isis. RBSS ha vinto nel 2015 l’International Press Freedom Award dal Committee to Protect Journalists e il premio del Foreign Policy Global Thinkers Award.
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ore 10:30
Tra calcio e futuro
Speaker
Diletta Leotta - Conduttrice Sky Sport
Giulia Diletta Leotta, 1991, è conduttrice a Sky Sport. Si è laureata in Giurisprudenza alla LUISS di Roma con una tesi dal titolo Il contratto di lavoro sportivo. Ha iniziato la sua carriera televisiva nel 2010, a diciannove anni, sulla rete locale Antenna Sicilia, affiancando Salvo La Rosa nella conduzione dell’11º Festival della nuova canzone siciliana e nel programma di intrattenimento Insieme. L’anno successivo è passata a Mediaset dove ha condotto la trasmissione Il Compleanno di La5 sull’omonima rete digitale. Nel 2012 diventa una delle conduttrici di Sky Meteo 24.
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ore 12:30
Serie internazionale
Speaker
Salvatore Esposito - Attore
Salvatore Esposito nasce a Napoli il 2 febbraio 1986. Sin da bambino nutre la passione per la recitazione. Raggiunta la maggiore età inizia i suoi studi di recitazione presso la Scuola di cinema di Napoli per poi trasferirsi a Roma dove studia con l’acting trainer Beatrice Bracco.
Ha fatto il suo esordio televisivo nel 2013 con Il clan dei camorristi, interpretando il ruolo di Domenico Ruggiero. Nel 2014 arriva il successo al grande pubblico con Gomorra – la serie, Salvatore interpreta Genny Savastano.
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ore 13:00
Lavoro e ricchezza nell’epoca dell’ Intelligenza Artificiale
Speaker
Jerry Kaplan - Esperto di Intelligenza Artificiale e Imprenditore
Jerry Kaplan è un esperto di Intelligenza Artificiale noto in tutto il mondo, un innovatore, seriael entrepreneur, educatore, futurista e autore di best sellers. Ha fondato quattro startup della Silicon Valley, due delle quali sono divenute società di fama, e insegnato alla Stanford University. Hanno parlato di lui tutti i principali quotidiani in lingua inglese e le riviste specializzate di tutto il mondo
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ore 14:00
La strada della musica
Speaker
Michele Bravi - Cantante
Michele Bravi esordisce nel 2013 con la vittoria di XFactor Italia.
Portato alla vittoria da Morgan e presentato al grande pubblico con un pezzo scritto per lui da Tiziano Ferro e Zibba, Michele pubblica il suo EP di debutto “La Vita e la Felicità”. A Gennaio 2014 il primo singolo “La Vita e la Felicità” viene certificato disco d’oro.
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ore 14:30
Il tocco vincente
Speaker
Mara Maionchi - Produttrice discografica
Mara Maionchi (Bologna, 22 aprile 1941) è una produttrice discografica e personaggio televisivo italiano.
Attualmente considerata la figura femminile di maggiore spicco nella discografia italiana, producendo sia per conto di major come Sony e Warner che come produttrice indipendente attraverso la sua etichetta, sostenendo tuttavia in numerose dichiarazioni che la vera scena musicale – intensa e multisfaccettata – è all’estero e che in Italia “si fa quel che si può”.
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ore 15:00
Maniaca di SerieTV
Speaker
Miriam Leone - Attrice
Nasce a Catania. Ha frequentato il Liceo Classico Gulli e Pennisi ad Acireale e la Facoltà di Lettere e Filosofia dell’Università degli Studi di Catania. Studia contemporaneamente recitazione. Nel 2008 partecipa e vince sia la fascia di Miss Italia che quella di Miss Cinema.
Nel 2010 debutta come attrice sia sul grande schermo con il film Genitori & figli – Agitare bene prima dell’uso, di Giovanni Veronesi, con Silvia Orlando e Margherita Buy, sia sul piccolo schermo con il film TV Il ritmo della vita, diretto da Rossella Izzo e trasmesso su Canale 5.
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ore 15:30
Indie a chi?
Speaker
Lo Stato Sociale - Musicisti
Nel 2012 esce il loro primo album, Turisti della democrazia, al quale fa seguito un tour di 200 concerti in Italia ed in Europa. Nel 2013, ad un anno dalla prima pubblicazione, Turisti della democrazia viene ripubblicato in edizione deluxe, in formato doppio CD. Il primo CD presenta la tracklist originale mentre il secondo CD comprende tutti gli 11 brani del disco originale coverizzati da 11 artisti, oltre a tanti remix e inediti. Alla ripubblicazione dell’album, segue un lungo tour dello spettacolo di teatro-canzone Tronisti della democrazia, nel quale le canzoni dell’album d’esordio sono alternate a monologhi e sketch a formare “un minicorso in 5 atti di buone maniere”. Con Turisti della democrazia, tra i più discussi album usciti in ambito indie rock in Italia, la band bolognese ha ricevuto la Targa Giovani Mei e il Premio SIAE “Miglior Giovane Talento dell’Anno” e altri riconoscimenti.
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ore 16:00
L’uomo che ha dato forma al pc
Speaker
Mario Bellini - Architetto
Mario Bellini è un architetto e designer noto in tutto il mondo. Ha ricevuto il Premio Compasso d’Oro otto volte e 25 delle sue opere sono nella collezione permanente del MoMA di New York, che gli ha dedicato una retrospettiva nel 1987. È stato direttore della rivista Domus (1985-1991). Ha progettato numerose mostre d’arte e di architettura sia in Italia, sia all’estero, l’ultima a Palazzo Reale con i capolavori di Giotto (2015).
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ore 16:00
C’è risata e risata
Speaker
Saverio Raimondo - Stand Up Comedian e conduttore CCN
Saverio Raimondo, 33 anni, comico satirico, è stato definito sulle pagine di Repubblica “l’unico stand up comedian italiano che sembra vero” e “il comico più bravo in circolazione” da Aldo Grasso del Corriere della Sera. È il comico di punta di Comedy Central Italia (canale 124 di Sky) per il suo show CCN – Comedy Central News, striscia satirica di grande successo di pubblico e critica, giunta alla terza stagione – attualmente in corso, in onda tutti i mercoledì alle 22 – e per la quale ha vinto il Premio Satira Politica per la Tv Forte Dei Marmi.
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ore 16:30
Il suono dal caos
Speaker
Levante - Musicista
Levante nasce a Caltagirone e cresce a Palagonia (Catania) in una famiglia affollata da menti creative. A nove anni scrive le prime canzoni e soltanto ad undici inizia a suonare la chitarra, rubandola al fratello, per la pura esigenza di musicare i propri testi. Dopo la morte del padre, lei e la madre si trasferiscono nella magica città di Torino. Qui tante sono le collaborazioni, i contratti andati male, i dischi mai usciti e gli anni di manifestazioni musicali, provini e gavetta.
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ore 17:00
Non è bello ciò che è bello, ma che bello che bello che bello
Speaker
Maccio Capatonda - Attore e Regista
Nino Frassica - Comico e Presentatore
Maccio Capatonda, pseudonimo di Marcello Macchia, è un attore, regista e comico italiano. Ha partecipato ai programmi televisivi Mai dire Lunedì e Mai dire Martedì. Precedentemente aveva fondato a Milano la Shortcut Productions, insieme a Enrico Venti, suo storico amico, anche lui di Chieti. Ha lavorato per AllMusic e lavora stabilmente sul web, affianco all’attività televisiva. Nel 2013 è ideatore, regista e interprete principale della serie televisiva Mario. In un primo tempo si è dedicato (accompagnato dal suo inseparabile gruppo) alla produzione di finti reality televisivi, come il Divano Scomodo e il Gabinetto.
Nel 1985 Arbore coinvolge Nino Frassica nel varietà “Quelli della notte” nei panni di frate Antonino da Scasazza, organizzatore di un improbabile concorso a premi. Seguono “Indietro tutta” dove veste i panni del bravo presentatore e mette in scena una spassosa parodia del tipico conduttore televisivo. Partecipa successivamente a “Fantastico”, “Domenica In”, “Scommettiamo che…?”, “I Cervelloni”, “Acqua calda”, “Colorado Cafè” e “Markette” condotto da Piero Chiambretti. Nel 1999 inizia l’avventura della fiction televisiva “Don Matteo” con Terence Hill, Flavio Insinna e successivamente Simone Montedoro, giunta ormai alla decima serie. Nino interpreta il ruolo del maresciallo dei Carabinieri Nino Cecchini.
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ore 17:30
Comicità all’italiana
Speaker
Herbert Ballerina - Attore e Comico
Maccio Capatonda - Attore e Regista
Herbert Ballerina, pseudonimo di Luigi Luciano, nato a Campobasso il 7 marzo 1980, è un attore, comico, conduttore radiofonico e produttore cinematografico italiano. Dopo essersi laureato al DAMS di Bologna si trasferisce a Milano entrando a far parte della Shortcut Productions di Marcello Macchia ed Enrico Venti (in arte Maccio Capatonda e Ivo Avido), inizialmente come assistente e poi come attore e autore. Con Marcello Macchia è protagonista, con lo pseudonimo di Herbert Ballerina, di numerosi trailer umoristici trasmessi all’interno dei programmi televisivi Mai dire Lunedì e Mai dire Martedì.
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ore 18:00
La democrazia della rete
Speaker
Luigi Di Maio - Vicepresidente della Camera
Nato a Avellino il 6 luglio 1986, ha conseguito il diploma di liceo classico ed è giornalista pubblicista. Eletto nella circoscrizione XIX (CAMPANIA 1) nel 2013 alla Camera dei Deputati con il Movimento Cinque Stelle, diventa il più giovane Vicepresidente della Camera. È uno dei volti di punta del Movimento Cinque Stelle, per molti naturale candidato alle prossime elezioni.
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ore 18:30
Non smetto più
Speaker
Sydney Sibilia - Regista, Sceneggiatore e Produttore cinematografico
Luigi Di Capua - Regista, sceneggiatore e attore
Francesca Manieri - Sceneggiatrice
Sydney Sibilia, nato a Salerno nel 1981, è un regista, sceneggiatore e produttore cinematografico italiano. Sydney Sibilia inizia a realizzare cortometraggi insieme all’amico Fabio Ferro nella loro natìa Salerno. Nel 2007 si trasferisce a Roma e successivamente realizza un cortometraggio che ottiene numerosi riconoscimenti, Oggi gira così (2010), prodotto dalla Ascent Film e scritto insieme a Valerio Attanasio.
Sempre con Valerio Attanasio, scrive la sceneggiatura della sua opera prima Smetto quando voglio. Il film, prodotto dalla Fandango di Domenico Procacci, dalla Ascent FIlm di Matteo Rovere e da Rai Cinema, viene distribuito nelle sale cinematografiche nel febbraio 2014, riscuotendo un successo sorprendente e ottenendo 12 candidature ai David di Donatello 2014. Nel 2017 è nelle sale il seguito, Smetto quando voglio – Masterclass, in attesa del terzo episodio.
Regista, sceneggiatore e attore. Insieme a Matteo Corradini e Luca Vecchi è il fondatore del collettivo The Pills, nato nell’estate del 2011. Il collettivo è diventato celebre grazie alla web serie omonima che ha debuttato su YouTube nello stesso anno, diventando immediatamente fenomeno del web. Dopo il successo ottenuto anche con la seconda stagione, nel 2014 la serie approda su Italia 1. Nello stesso anno, The Pills sono autori insieme a Matteo Rovere, Luca Ravenna, Sydney Sibilia e Daniele Grassetti della serie tv Zio Gianni in onda su Rai2. Il 21 gennaio 2016 esce nelle sale il loro primo film, The Pills – Sempre meglio che lavorare.
Sceneggiatrice tra le più apprezzate in Italia, è laureata in filosofia.
Tra i suoi lavori: Zanzibar. Una storia daAmore, di cui ha curato anche la regia, Passione sinistra, Il rosso e il blu, La foresta di ghiaccio, Vergine giurata, Veloce come il vento, Nemiche per la pelle, il corto Era ieri, Come fai sbagli e il successo Smetto quando voglio.
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ore 19:00
L’identità della bellezza
Speaker
Samuel - Cantante e Musicista
Samuel Umberto Romano, conosciuto semplicemente come Samuel (Torino, 7 marzo 1972), è un cantautore e chitarrista italiano. È il frontman del gruppo dei Subsonica, in cui è anche compositore e autore dei testi delle canzoni insieme a Max Casacci e Davide Dileo, meglio conosciuto come Boosta.
Nel 2016 ha annunciato attraverso le proprie pagine Facebook e Instagram di essere al lavoro sul suo primo album da solista, anticipato il 9 settembre 2016 dal suo primo singolo da solista, La risposta, seguito tre mesi dopo da Rabbia.
And again
Boomerang aka A Secret Kept, a 2010 novel by Tatiana De Rosnay.
This is the Swedish cover. :)
Hey look! I got another article published over at DPS! It's not my image (I forgot to submit one lol). It's over here:
www.digital-photography-school.com/5-key-skills-for-the-m...
oh and of course the blog, as usual, where you can get more of the same...or better...is over at www.shotslot.net
Woohoo!!
Local Accession Number: 06_11_004378
Title: Be the howly St. Patrick, there's Mickie's ghost!
Genre: Stereographs; Photographic prints
Created/Published: New York, N.Y. : Strohmeyer & Wyman, Publishers
Copyright date: 1894
Physical description: 1 photographic print on curved stereo card : stereograph ; 9 x 18 cm.
General notes: Title from item.
Subjects: Humorous pictures; Wake services; Intoxication; Ethnic stereotypes; Ghosts; Hallucinations & illusions
Collection: Harper Stereograph Collection
Location: Boston Public Library, Print Department
Shelf locator: Humorous set
Rights: No known restrictions
The classic front view!
Published at www.worldreviewer.com/experiences/mountains/table-mountai... and at www.capetown.travel/blog/entry/table_mountain_a_cape_town....
Also published at en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mountain, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Table_Mountain, matadortrips.com/top-15-adventure-towns-worldwide/ and at en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Cape_Town.
Published in 1948 by the Joint Executive Committee for the Inauguration of the Republic of the Philippines.
(Photo taken from the Presidential Museum and Library's collection)
The Postcard
A postally unused carte postale published by L. B. of Dijon and distributed by Ch. Macé of Versailles. The card has a divided back.
The Gardens of Versailles
The Gardens of Versailles are situated to the west of the palace. They cover some 800 hectares (1,977 acres) of land, much of which is landscaped in the classic French formal garden style perfected here by André Le Nôtre.
Beyond the surrounding belt of woodland, the gardens are bordered by the urban areas of Versailles to the east and Le Chesnay to the north-east, by the National Arboretum de Chèvreloup to the north, the Versailles plain (a protected wildlife preserve) to the west, and by the Satory Forest to the south.
In 1979, the gardens along with the château were inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List due to its cultural importance during the 17th. and 18th. centuries.
The gardens are now one of the most visited public sites in France, receiving more than six million visitors a year.
The gardens contain 200,000 trees, 210,000 flowers planted annually, and feature meticulously manicured lawns and parterres, as well as many sculptures.
50 fountains containing 620 water jets, fed by 35 km. of piping, are located throughout the gardens. Dating from the time of Louis XIV and still using much of the same network of hydraulics as was used during the Ancien Régime, the fountains contribute to making the gardens of Versailles unique.
On weekends from late spring to early autumn, there are the Grandes Eaux - spectacles during which all the fountains in the gardens are in full play. Designed by André Le Nôtre, the Grand Canal is the masterpiece of the Gardens of Versailles.
In the Gardens too, the Grand Trianon was built to provide the Sun King with the retreat that he wanted. The Petit Trianon is associated with Marie-Antoinette, who spent time there with her closest relatives and friends.
The Du Bus Plan for the Gardens of Versailles
With Louis XIII's purchase of lands from Jean-François de Gondi in 1632 and his assumption of the seigneurial role of Versailles in the 1630's, formal gardens were laid out west of the château.
Claude Mollet and Hilaire Masson designed the gardens, which remained relatively unchanged until the expansion ordered under Louis XIV in the 1660's. This early layout, which has survived in the so-called Du Bus plan of c.1662, shows an established topography along which lines of the gardens evolved. This is evidenced in the clear definition of the main east–west and north–south axis that anchors the gardens' layout.
Louis XIV
In 1661, after the disgrace of the finance minister Nicolas Fouquet, who was accused by rivals of embezzling crown funds in order to build his luxurious château at Vaux-le-Vicomte, Louis XIV turned his attention to Versailles.
With the aid of Fouquet's architect Louis Le Vau, painter Charles Le Brun, and landscape architect André Le Nôtre, Louis began an embellishment and expansion program at Versailles that would occupy his time and worries for the remainder of his reign.
From this point forward, the expansion of the gardens of Versailles followed the expansions of the château.
(a) The First Building Campaign
In 1662, minor modifications to the château were undertaken; however, greater attention was given to developing the gardens. Existing bosquets (clumps of trees) and parterres were expanded, and new ones created.
Most significant among the creations at this time were the Versailles Orangerie and the "Grotte de Thétys". The Orangery, which was designed by Louis Le Vau, was located south of the château, a situation that took advantage of the natural slope of the hill. It provided a protected area in which orange trees were kept during the winter months.
The "Grotte de Thétys", which was located to the north of the château, formed part of the iconography of the château and of the gardens that aligned Louis XIV with solar imagery. The grotto was completed during the second building campaign.
By 1664, the gardens had evolved to the point that Louis XIV inaugurated the gardens with the fête galante called Les Plaisirs de L'Île Enchantée. The event, was ostensibly to celebrate his mother, Anne d'Autriche, and his consort Marie-Thérèse but in reality celebrated Louise de La Vallière, Louis' mistress.
Guests were regaled with entertainments in the gardens over a period of one week. As a result of this fête - particularly the lack of housing for guests (most of them had to sleep in their carriages), Louis realised the shortcomings of Versailles, and began to expand the château and the gardens once again.
(b) The Second Building Campaign
Between 1664 and 1668, there was a flurry of activity in the gardens - especially with regard to fountains and new bosquets; it was during this time that the imagery of the gardens exploited Apollo and solar imagery as metaphors for Louis XIV.
Le Va's enveloppe of the Louis XIII's château provided a means by which, though the decoration of the garden façade, imagery in the decors of the grands appartements of the king and queen formed a symbiosis with the imagery of the gardens.
With this new phase of construction, the gardens assumed the design vocabulary that remained in force until the 18th. century. Solar and Apollonian themes predominated with projects constructed at this time.
Three additions formed the topological and symbolic nexus of the gardens during this phase of construction: the completion of the "Grotte de Thétys", the "Bassin de Latone", and the "Bassin d'Apollon".
The Grotte de Thétys
Started in 1664 and finished in 1670 with the installation of the statuary, the grotto formed an important symbolic and technical component to the gardens. Symbolically, the "Grotte de Thétys" related to the myth of Apollo - and by association to Louis XIV.
It represented the cave of the sea nymph Thetis, where Apollo rested after driving his chariot to light the sky. The grotto was a freestanding structure located just north of the château.
The interior, which was decorated with shell-work to represent a sea cave, contained the statue group by the Marsy brothers depicting the sun god attended by nereids.
Technically, the "'Grotte de Thétys" played a critical role in the hydraulic system that supplied water to the garden. The roof of the grotto supported a reservoir that stored water pumped from the Clagny pond and which fed the fountains lower in the garden via gravity.
The Bassin de Latone
Located on the east–west axis is the Bassin de Latone. Designed by André Le Nôtre, sculpted by Gaspard and Balthazar Marsy, and constructed between 1668 and 1670, the fountain depicts an episode from Ovid's Metamorphoses.
Altona and her children, Apollo and Diana, being tormented with mud slung by Lycian peasants, who refused to let her and her children drink from their pond, appealed to Jupiter who responded by turning the Lycians into frogs.
This episode from mythology has been seen as a reference to the revolts of the Fronde, which occurred during the minority of Louis XIV. The link between Ovid's story and this episode from French history is emphasised by the reference to "mud slinging" in a political context.
The revolts of the Fronde - the word fronde also means slingshot - have been regarded as the origin of the use of the term "mud slinging" in a political context.
The Bassin d'Apollon
Further along the east–west axis is the Bassin d'Apollon. The Apollo Fountain, which was constructed between 1668 and 1671, depicts the sun god driving his chariot to light the sky. The fountain forms a focal point in the garden, and serves as a transitional element between the gardens of the Petit Parc and the Grand Canal.
The Grand Canal
With a length of 1,500 metres and a width of 62 metres, the Grand Canal, which was built between 1668 and 1671, prolongs the east–west axis to the walls of the Grand Parc. During the Ancien Régime, the Grand Canal served as a venue for boating parties.
In 1674 the king ordered the construction of Petite Venise (Little Venice). Located at the junction of the Grand Canal and the northern transversal branch, Little Venice housed the caravels and yachts that were received from The Netherlands and the gondolas and gondoliers received as gifts from the Doge of Venice.
The Grand Canal also served a practical role. Situated at a low point in the gardens, it collected water that drained from the fountains in the garden above. Water from the Grand Canal was pumped back to the reservoir on the roof of the Grotte de Thétys via a network of windmill- and horse-powered pumps.
The Parterre d'Eau
Situated above the Latona Fountain is the terrace of the château, known as the Parterre d'Eau. Forming a transitional element from the château to the gardens below, the Parterre d'Eau provided a setting in which the symbolism of the grands appartements synthesized with the iconography of the gardens.
In 1664, Louis XIV commissioned a series of statues intended to decorate the water feature of the Parterre d'Eau. The Grande Command, as the commission is known, comprised twenty-four statues of the classic quaternities and four additional statues depicting abductions from the classic past.
Evolution of the Bosquets
One of the distinguishing features of the gardens during the second building campaign was the proliferation of bosquets. Expanding the layout established during the first building campaign, Le Nôtre added or expanded on no fewer that ten bosquets between 1670 and 1678:
-- The Bosquet du Marais
-- The Bosquet du Théâtre d'Eau, Île du Roi
-- The Miroir d'Eau
-- The Salle des Festins (Salle du Conseil)
-- The Bosquet des Trois Fontaines
-- The Labyrinthe
-- The Bosquet de l'Arc de Triomphe
-- The Bosquet de la Renommée (Bosquet des Dômes)
-- The Bosquet de l'Encélade
-- The Bosquet des Sources
In addition to the expansion of existing bosquets and the construction of new ones, there were two additional projects that defined this era, the Bassin des Sapins and the Pièce d'Eau des Suisses.
-- The Bassin des Sapins
In 1676, the Bassin des Sapins, which was located north of the château below the Allée des Marmoset's was designed to form a topological pendant along the north–south axis with the Pièce d'Eau des Suisses located at the base of the Satory hill south of the château.
Later modifications in the gardens transformed this fountain into the Bassin de Neptune.
-- Pièce d'Eau des Suisses
Excavated in 1678, the Pièce d'Eau des Suisses - named after the Swiss Guards who constructed the lake - occupied an area of marshes and ponds, some of which had been used to supply water for the fountains in the garden.
This water feature, with a surface area of more than 15 hectares (37 acres), is the second largest - after the Grand Canal - at Versailles.
(c) The Third Building Campaign
Modifications to the gardens during the third building campaign were distinguished by a stylistic change from the natural aesthetic of André Le Nôtre to the architectonic style of Jules Hardouin Mansart.
The first major modification to the gardens during this phase occurred in 1680 when the Tapis Vert - the expanse of lawn that stretches between the Latona Fountain and the Apollo Fountain - achieved its final size and definition under the direction of André Le Nôtre.
Beginning in 1684, the Parterre d'Eau was remodelled under the direction of Jules Hardouin-Mansart. Statues from the Grande Commande of 1674 were relocated to other parts of the garden; two twin octagonal basins were constructed and decorated with bronze statues representing the four main rivers of France.
In the same year, Le Vau's Orangerie, located to south of the Parterrre d'Eau was demolished to accommodate a larger structure designed by Jules Hardouin-Mansart.
In addition to the Orangerie, the Escaliers des Cent Marches, which facilitated access to the gardens from the south, to the Pièce d'Eau des Suisses, and to the Parterre du Midi were constructed at this time, giving the gardens just south of the château their present configuration and decoration.
Additionally, to accommodate the anticipated construction of the Aile des Nobles - the north wing of the château - the Grotte de Thétys was demolished.
With the construction of the Aile des Nobles (1685–1686), the Parterre du Nord was remodelled to respond to the new architecture of this part of the château.
To compensate for the loss of the reservoir on top of the Grotte de Thétys and to meet the increased demand for water, Jules Hardouin-Mansart designed new and larger reservoirs situated north of the Aile des Nobles.
Construction of the ruinously expensive Canal de l'Eure was inaugurated in 1685; designed by Vauban it was intended to bring waters of the Eure over 80 kilometres, including aqueducts of heroic scale, but the works were abandoned in 1690.
Between 1686 and 1687, the Bassin de Latone, under the direction of Jules Hardouin-Mansart, was rebuilt. It is this final version of the fountain that one sees today at Versailles.
During this phase of construction, three of the garden's major bosquets were modified or created. Beginning with the Galerie des Antiques, this bosquet was constructed in 1680 on the site of the earlier and short-lived Galerie d'Eau. This bosquet was conceived as an open-air gallery in which antique statues and copies acquired by the Académie de France in Rome were displayed.
The following year, construction began on the Salle de Bal. Located in a secluded section of the garden west of the Orangerie, this bosquet was designed as an amphitheater that featured a cascade – the only one surviving in the gardens of Versailles. The Salle de Bal was inaugurated in 1685 with a ball hosted by the Grand Dauphin.
Between 1684 and 1685, Jules Hardouin-Mansart built the Colonnade. Located on the site of Le Nôtre's Bosquet des Sources, this bosquet featured a circular peristyle formed from thirty-two arches with twenty-eight fountains, and was Hardouin-Mansart's most architectural of the bosquets built in the gardens of Versailles.
(d) The Fourth Building Campaign
Due to financial constraints arising from the War of the League of Augsburg and the War of the Spanish Succession, no significant work on the gardens was undertaken until 1704.
Between 1704 and 1709, bosquets were modified, some quite radically, with new names suggesting the new austerity that characterised the latter years of Louis XIV's reign.
Louis XV
With the departure of the king and court from Versailles in 1715 following the death of Louis XIV, the palace and gardens entered an era of uncertainty.
In 1722, Louis XV and the court returned to Versailles. Seeming to heed his great-grandfather's admonition not to engage in costly building campaigns, Louis XV did not undertake the costly rebuilding that Louis XIV had.
During the reign of Louis XV, the only significant addition to the gardens was the completion of the Bassin de Neptune (1738–1741).
Rather than expend resources on modifying the gardens at Versailles, Louis XV - an avid botanist - directed his efforts at Trianon. In the area now occupied by the Hameau de la Reine, Louis XV constructed and maintained les Jardins Botaniques.
In 1761, Louis XV commissioned Ange-Jacques Gabriel to build the Petit Trianon as a residence that would allow him to spend more time near the Jardins Botaniques. It was at the Petit Trianon that Louis XV fell fatally ill with smallpox; he died at Versailles on the 10th. May 1774.
Louis XVI
Upon Louis XVI's ascension to the throne, the gardens of Versailles underwent a transformation that recalled the fourth building campaign of Louis XIV. Engendered by a change in outlook as advocated by Jean-Jacques Rousseau and the Philosophes, the winter of 1774–1775 witnessed a complete replanting of the gardens.
Trees and shrubbery dating from the reign of Louis XIV were felled or uprooted with the intent of transforming the French formal garden of Le Nôtre and Hardouin-Mansart into a version of an English landscape garden.
The attempt to convert Le Nôtre's masterpiece into an English-style garden failed to achieve its desired goal. Owing largely to the topology of the land, the English aesthetic was abandoned and the gardens replanted in the French style.
However, with an eye on economy, Louis XVI ordered the Palisades - the labour-intensive clipped hedging that formed walls in the bosquets - to be replaced with rows of lime trees or chestnut trees. Additionally, a number of the bosquets dating from the time of the Sun King were extensively modified or destroyed.
The most significant contribution to the gardens during the reign of Louis XVI was the Grotte des Bains d'Apollon. The rockwork grotto set in an English style bosquet was the masterpiece of Hubert Robert in which the statues from the Grotte de Thétys were placed.
Revolution
In 1792, under order from the National Convention, some of the trees in the gardens were felled, while parts of the Grand Parc were parcelled and dispersed.
Sensing the potential threat to Versailles, Louis Claude Marie Richard (1754–1821) – director of the Jardins Botaniques and grandson of Claude Richard – lobbied the government to save Versailles. He succeeded in preventing further dispersing of the Grand Parc, and threats to destroy the Petit Parc were abolished by suggesting that the parterres could be used to plant vegetable gardens, and that orchards could occupy the open areas of the garden.
These plans were never put into action; however, the gardens were opened to the public - it was not uncommon to see people washing their laundry in the fountains and spreading it on the shrubbery to dry.
Napoléon I
The Napoleonic era largely ignored Versailles. In the château, a suite of rooms was arranged for the use of the empress Marie-Louise, but the gardens were left unchanged, save for the disastrous felling of trees in the Bosquet de l'Arc de Triomphe and the Bosquet des Trois Fontaines. Massive soil erosion necessitated planting of new trees.
Restoration
With the restoration of the Bourbons in 1814, the gardens of Versailles witnessed the first modifications since the Revolution. In 1817, Louis XVIII ordered the conversion of the Île du Roi and the Miroir d'Eau into an English-style garden - the Jardin du Roi.
The July Monarchy; The Second Empire
While much of the château's interior was irreparably altered to accommodate the Museum of the History of France (inaugurated by Louis-Philippe on the 10th. June 1837), the gardens, by contrast, remained untouched.
With the exception of the state visit of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert in 1855, at which time the gardens were a setting for a gala fête that recalled the fêtes of Louis XIV, Napoléon III ignored the château, preferring instead the château of Compiègne.
Pierre de Nolhac
With the arrival of Pierre de Nolhac as director of the museum in 1892, a new era of historical research began at Versailles. Nolhac, an ardent archivist and scholar, began to piece together the history of Versailles, and subsequently established the criteria for restoration of the château and preservation of the gardens, which are ongoing to this day.
Bosquets of the Gardens
Owing to the many modifications made to the gardens between the 17th. and the 19th. centuries, many of the bosquets have undergone multiple modifications, which were often accompanied by name changes.
Deux Bosquets - Bosquet de la Girondole - Bosquet du Dauphin - Quinconce du Nord - Quinconce du Midi
These two bosquets were first laid out in 1663. They were arranged as a series of paths around four salles de verdure and which converged on a central "room" that contained a fountain.
In 1682, the southern bosquet was remodeled as the Bosquet de la Girondole, thus named due to spoke-like arrangement of the central fountain. The northern bosquet was rebuilt in 1696 as the Bosquet du Dauphin with a fountain that featured a dolphin.
During the replantation of 1774–1775, both the bosquets were destroyed. The areas were replanted with lime trees and were rechristened the Quinconce du Nord and the Quinconce du Midi.
Labyrinthe - Bosquet de la Reine
In 1665, André Le Nôtre planned a hedge maze of unadorned paths in an area south of the Latona Fountain near the Orangerie. In 1669, Charles Perrault - author of the Mother Goose Tales - advised Louis XIV to remodel the Labyrinthe in such a way as to serve the Dauphin's education.
Between 1672 and 1677, Le Nôtre redesigned the Labyrinthe to feature thirty-nine fountains that depicted stories from Aesop's Fables. The sculptors Jean-Baptiste Tuby, Étienne Le Hongre, Pierre Le Gros, and the brothers Gaspard and Balthazard Marsy worked on these thirty-nine fountains, each of which was accompanied by a plaque on which the fable was printed, with verse written by Isaac de Benserade; from these plaques, Louis XIV's son learned to read.
Once completed in 1677, the Labyrinthe contained thirty-nine fountains with 333 painted metal animal sculptures. The water for the elaborate waterworks was conveyed from the Seine by the Machine de Marly.
The Labyrinthe contained fourteen water-wheels driving 253 pumps, some of which worked at a distance of three-quarters of a mile.
Citing repair and maintenance costs, Louis XVI ordered the Labyrinthe demolished in 1778. In its place, an arboretum of exotic trees was planted as an English-styled garden.
Rechristened Bosquet de la Reine, it would be in this part of the garden that an episode of the Affair of the Diamond Necklace, which compromised Marie-Antoinette, transpired in 1785.
Bosquet de la Montagne d'Eau - Bosquet de l'Étoile
Originally designed by André Le Nôtre in 1661 as a salle de verdure, this bosquet contained a path encircling a central pentagonal area. In 1671, the bosquet was enlarged with a more elaborate system of paths that served to enhance the new central water feature, a fountain that resembled a mountain, hence the bosquets new name: Bosquet de la Montagne d'Eau.
The bosquet was completely remodeled in 1704 at which time it was rechristened Bosquet de l'Étoile.
Bosquet du Marais - Bosquet du Chêne Vert - Bosquet des Bains d'Apollon - Grotte des Bains d'Apollon
Created in 1670, this bosquet originally contained a central rectangular pool surrounded by a turf border. Edging the pool were metal reeds that concealed numerous jets for water; a swan that had water jetting from its beak occupied each corner.
The centre of the pool featured an iron tree with painted tin leaves that sprouted water from its branches. Because of this tree, the bosquet was also known as the Bosquet du Chêne Vert.
In 1705, this bosquet was destroyed in order to allow for the creation of the Bosquet des Bains d'Apollon, which was created to house the statues had once stood in the Grotte de Thétys.
During the reign of Louis XVI, Hubert Robert remodeled the bosquet, creating a cave-like setting for the Marsy statues. The bosquet was renamed the Grotte des Bains d'Apollon.
Île du Roi - Miroir d'Eau - Jardin du Roi
Originally designed in 1671 as two separate water features, the larger - Île du Roi - contained an island that formed the focal point of a system of elaborate fountains.
The Île du Roi was separated from the Miroir d'Eau by a causeway that featured twenty-four water jets. In 1684, the island was removed and the total number of water jets in the bosquet was significantly reduced.
The year 1704 witnessed a major renovation of the bosquet, at which time the causeway was remodelled and most of the water jets were removed.
A century later, in 1817, Louis XVIII ordered the Île du Roi and the Miroir d'Eau to be completely remodeled as an English-style garden. At this time, the bosquet was rechristened Jardin du Roi.
Salle des Festins - Salle du Conseil - Bosquet de l'Obélisque
In 1671, André Le Nôtre conceived a bosquet - originally christened Salle des Festins and later called Salle du Conseil - that featured a quatrefoil island surrounded by a channel containing fifty water jets. Access to the island was obtained by two swing bridges.
Beyond the channel and placed at the cardinal points within the bosquet were four additional fountains. Under the direction of Jules Hardouin-Mansart, the bosquet was completely remodeled in 1706. The central island was replaced by a large basin raised on five steps, which was surrounded by a canal. The central fountain contained 230 jets that, when in play, formed an obelisk – hence the new name Bosquet de l'Obélisque.
Bosquet du Théâtre d'Eau - Bosquet du Rond-Vert
The central feature of this bosquet, which was designed by Le Nôtre between 1671 and 1674, was an auditorium/theatre sided by three tiers of turf seating that faced a stage decorated with four fountains alternating with three radiating cascades.
Between 1680 and Louis XIV's death in 1715, there was near-constant rearranging of the statues that decorated the bosquet.
In 1709, the bosquet was rearranged with the addition of the Fontaine de l'Île aux Enfants. As part of the replantation of the gardens ordered by Louis XVI during the winter of 1774–1775, the Bosquet du Théâtre d'Eau was destroyed and replaced with the unadorned Bosquet du Rond-Vert. The Bosquet du Théâtre d'Eau was recreated in 2014, with South Korean businessman and photographer Yoo Byung-eun being the sole patron, donating €1.4 million.
Bosquet des Trois Fontaines - Berceau d'Eau
Situated to the west of the Allée des Marmousets and replacing the short-lived Berceau d'Eau (a long and narrow bosquet created in 1671 that featured a water bower made by numerous jets of water), the enlarged bosquet was transformed by Le Nôtre in 1677 into a series of three linked rooms.
Each room contained a number of fountains that played with special effects. The fountains survived the modifications that Louis XIV ordered for other fountains in the gardens in the early 18th. century and were subsequently spared during the 1774–1775 replantation of the gardens.
In 1830, the bosquet was replanted, at which time the fountains were suppressed. Due to storm damage in the park in 1990 and then again in 1999, the Bosquet des Trois Fontaines was restored and re-inaugurated on the 12th. June 2004.
Bosquet de l'Arc de Triomphe
This bosquet was originally planned in 1672 as a simple pavillon d'eau - a round open expanse with a square fountain in the centre. In 1676, this bosquet was enlarged and redecorated along political lines that alluded to French military victories over Spain and Austria, at which time the triumphal arch was added - hence the name.
As with the Bosquet des Trois Fontaines, this bosquet survived the modifications of the 18th. century, but was replanted in 1830, at which time the fountains were removed.
Bosquet de la Renommée - Bosquet des Dômes
Built in 1675, the Bosquet de la Renommée featured a fountain statue of Fame. With the relocation of the statues from the Grotte de Thétys in 1684, the bosquet was remodelled to accommodate the statues, and the Fame fountain was removed.
At this time the bosquet was rechristened Bosquet des Bains d'Apollon. As part of the reorganisation of the garden that was ordered by Louis XIV in the early part of the 18th. century, the Apollo grouping was moved once again to the site of the Bosquet du Marais - located near the Latona Fountain - which was destroyed and was replaced by the new Bosquet des Bains d'Apollon.
The statues were installed on marble plinths from which water issued; and each statue grouping was protected by an intricately carved and gilded baldachin.
The old Bosquet des Bains d'Apollon was renamed Bosquet des Dômes due to two domed pavilions built in the bosquet.
Bosquet de l'Encélade
Created in 1675 at the same time as the Bosquet de la Renommée, the fountain of this bosquet depicts Enceladus, a fallen Giant who was condemned to live below Mount Etna, being consumed by volcanic lava.
From its conception, this fountain was conceived as an allegory of Louis XIV's victory over the Fronde. In 1678, an octagonal ring of turf and eight rocaille fountains surrounding the central fountain were added. These additions were removed in 1708.
When in play, this fountain has the tallest jet of all the fountains in the gardens of Versailles - 25 metres.
Bosquet des Sources - La Colonnade
Designed as a simple unadorned salle de verdure by Le Nôtre in 1678, the landscape architect enhanced and incorporated an existing stream to create a bosquet that featured rivulets that twisted among nine islets.
In 1684, Jules Hardouin-Mansart completely redesigned the bosquet by constructing a circular arched double peristyle. The Colonnade, as it was renamed, originally featured thirty-two arches and thirty-one fountains – a single jet of water splashed into a basin center under the arch.
In 1704, three additional entrances to the Colonnade were added, which reduced the number of fountains from thirty-one to twenty-eight. The statue that currently occupies the centre of the Colonnade - the Abduction of Persephone - (from the Grande Commande of 1664) was set in place in 1696.
Galerie d'Eau - Galerie des Antiques - Salle des Marronniers
Occupying the site of the Galerie d'Eau (1678), the Galerie des Antiques was designed in 1680 to house the collection of antique statues and copies of antique statues acquired by the Académie de France in Rome.
Surrounding a central area paved with colored stone, a channel was decorated with twenty statues on plinths, each separated by three jets of water.
The Galerie was completely remodeled in 1704 when the statues were transferred to Marly and the bosquet was replanted with horse chestnut trees - hence the current name Salle des Marronniers.
Salle de Bal
This bosquet, which was designed by Le Nôtre and built between 1681 and 1683, features a semi-circular cascade that forms the backdrop for a salle de verdure.
Interspersed with gilt lead torchères, which supported candelabra for illumination, the Salle de Bal was inaugurated in 1683 by Louis XIV's son, the Grand Dauphin, with a dance party.
The Salle de Bal was remodeled in 1707 when the central island was removed and an additional entrance was added.
Replantations of the Gardens
Common to any long-lived garden is replantation, and Versailles is no exception. In their history, the gardens of Versailles have undergone no less than five major replantations, which have been executed for practical and aesthetic reasons.
During the winter of 1774–1775, Louis XVI ordered the replanting of the gardens on the grounds that many of the trees were diseased or overgrown, and needed to be replaced.
Also, as the formality of the 17th.-century garden had fallen out of fashion, this replantation sought to establish a new informality in the gardens - that would also be less expensive to maintain.
This, however, was not achieved, as the topology of the gardens favored the Jardin à la Française over an English-style garden.
Then, in 1860, much of the old growth from Louis XVI's replanting was removed and replaced. In 1870, a violent storm struck the area, damaging and uprooting scores of trees, which necessitated a massive replantation program.
However, owing to the Franco-Prussian War, which toppled Napoléon III, and the Commune de Paris, replantation of the garden did not get underway until 1883.
The most recent replantations of the gardens were precipitated by two storms that battered Versailles in 1990 and then again in 1999. The storm damage at Versailles and Trianon amounted to the loss of thousands of trees - the worst such damage in the history of Versailles.
The replantations have allowed museum and governmental authorities to restore and rebuild some of the bosquets that were abandoned during the reign of Louis XVI, such as the Bosquet des Trois Fontaines, which was restored in 2004.
Catherine Pégard, the head of the public establishment which administers Versailles, has stated that the intention is to return the gardens to their appearance under Louis XIV, specifically as he described them in his 1704 description, Manière de Montrer les Jardins de Versailles.
This involves restoring some of the parterres like the Parterre du Midi to their original formal layout, as they appeared under Le Nôtre. This was achieved in the Parterre de Latone in 2013, when the 19th. century lawns and flower beds were torn up and replaced with boxwood-enclosed turf and gravel paths to create a formal arabesque design.
Pruning is also done to keep trees at between 17 and 23 metres (56 to 75 feet), so as not to spoil the carefully designed perspectives of the gardens.
Owing to the natural cycle of replantations that has occurred at Versailles, it is safe to state that no trees dating from the time of Louis XIV are to be found in the gardens.
Problems With Water
The marvel of the gardens of Versailles - then as now - is the fountains. Yet, the very element that animates the gardens, water, has proven to be the affliction of the gardens since the time of Louis XIV.
The gardens of Louis XIII required water, and local ponds provided an adequate supply. However, once Louis XIV began expanding the gardens with more and more fountains, supplying the gardens with water became a critical challenge.
To meet the needs of the early expansions of the gardens under Louis XIV, water was pumped to the gardens from ponds near the château, with the Clagny pond serving as the principal source.
Water from the pond was pumped to the reservoir on top of the Grotte de Thétys, which fed the fountains in the garden by means of gravitational hydraulics. Other sources included a series of reservoirs located on the Satory Plateau south of the château.
The Grand Canal
By 1664, increased demand for water necessitated additional sources. In that year, Louis Le Vau designed the Pompe, a water tower built north of the château. The Pompe drew water from the Clagny pond using a system of windmills and horsepower to a cistern housed in the Pompe's building. The capacity of the Pompe 600 cubic metres per day - alleviated some of the water shortages in the garden.
With the completion of the Grand Canal in 1671, which served as drainage for the fountains of the garden, water, via a system of windmills, was pumped back to the reservoir on top of the Grotte de Thétys.
While this system solved some of the water supply problems, there was never enough water to keep all of the fountains running in the garden in full-play all of the time.
While it was possible to keep the fountains in view from the château running, those concealed in the bosquets and in the farther reaches of the garden were run on an as-needed basis.
In 1672, Jean-Baptiste Colbert devised a system by which the fountaineers in the gardens would signal each other with whistles upon the approach of the king, indicating that their fountain needed to be turned on. Once the king had passed a fountain in play, it would be turned off and the fountaineer would signal that the next fountain could be turned on.
In 1674, the Pompe was enlarged, and subsequently referred to as the Grande Pompe. Pumping capacity was increased via increased power and the number of pistons used for lifting the water. These improvements increased the water capacity to nearly 3,000 cubic metres of water per day; however, the increased capacity of the Grande Pompe often left the Clagny pond dry.
The increasing demand for water and the stress placed on existing systems of water supply necessitated newer measures to increase the water supplied to Versailles. Between 1668 and 1674, a project was undertaken to divert the water of the Bièvre river to Versailles. By damming the river and with a pumping system of five windmills, water was brought to the reservoirs located on the Satory Plateau. This system brought an additional 72,000 cubic metres water to the gardens on a daily basis.
Despite the water from the Bièvre, the gardens needed still more water, which necessitated more projects. In 1681, one of the most ambitious water projects conceived during the reign of Louis XIV was undertaken.
Owing to the proximity of the Seine to Versailles, a project was proposed to raise the water from the river to be delivered to Versailles. Seizing upon the success of a system devised in 1680 that raised water from the Seine to the gardens of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, construction of the Machine de Marly began the following year.
The Machine de Marly was designed to lift water from the Seine in three stages to the Aqueduc de Louveciennes some 100 metres above the level of the river. A series of huge waterwheels was constructed in the river, which raised the water via a system of 64 pumps to a reservoir 48 metres above the river. From this first reservoir, water was raised an additional 56 metres to a second reservoir by a system of 79 pumps. Finally, 78 additional pumps raised the water to the aqueduct, which carried the water to Versailles and Marly.
In 1685, the Machine de Marly came into full operation. However, owing to leakage in the conduits and breakdowns of the mechanism, the machine was only able to deliver 3,200 cubic metres of water per day - approximately one-half the expected output. The machine was nevertheless a must-see for visitors. Despite the fact that the gardens consumed more water per day than the entire city of Paris, the Machine de Marly remained in operation until 1817.
During Louis XIV's reign, water supply systems represented one-third of the building costs of Versailles. Even with the additional output from the Machine de Marly, fountains in the garden could only be run à l'ordinaire - which is to say at half-pressure.
With this measure of economy, the fountains still consumed 12,800 cubic metres of water per day, far above the capacity of the existing supplies. In the case of the Grandes Eaux - when all the fountains played to their maximum - more than 10,000 cubic metres of water was needed for one afternoon's display.
Accordingly, the Grandes Eaux were reserved for special occasions such as the Siamese Embassy visit of 1685–1686.
The Canal de l'Eure
One final attempt to solve water shortage problems was undertaken in 1685. In this year it was proposed to divert the water of the Eure river, located 160 km. south of Versailles and at a level 26 m above the garden reservoirs.
The project called not only for digging a canal and for the construction of an aqueduct, it also necessitated the construction of shipping channels and locks to supply the workers on the main canal.
Between 9,000 to 10,000 troops were pressed into service in 1685; the next year, more than 20,000 soldiers were engaged in construction. Between 1686 and 1689, when the Nine Years' War began, one-tenth of France's military was at work on the Canal de l'Eure project.
However with the outbreak of the war, the project was abandoned, never to be completed. Had the aqueduct been completed, some 50,000 cubic metres of water would have been sent to Versailles - more than enough to solve the water problem of the gardens.
Today, the museum of Versailles is still faced with water problems. During the Grandes Eaux, water is circulated by means of modern pumps from the Grand Canal to the reservoirs. Replenishment of the water lost due to evaporation comes from rainwater, which is collected in cisterns that are located throughout the gardens and diverted to the reservoirs and the Grand Canal.
Assiduous husbanding of this resource by museum officials prevents the need to tap into the supply of potable water of the city of Versailles.
The Versailles Gardens In Popular Culture
The creation of the gardens of Versailles is the context for the film 'A Little Chaos', directed by Alan Rickman and released in 2015, in which Kate Winslet plays a fictional landscape gardener and Rickman plays King Louis XIV.
The Kaiser Permanente Center for Total Health is sending its Google Glass V1 back as part of the Explorer exchange program.
Published in: Google Glass rolls out a try-before-you-buy program
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La quinta edizione del festival organizzato da Wired Italia. Due lunghi fine settimana in cui vivere l’innovazione nell’economia, nella scienza, nella politica, nell’intrattenimento, nella cultura. Milano e Firenze si trasformano per un fine settimana nel luna park della scienza e della tecnologia. Oltre 150 relatori, performance artistiche, laboratori di stampa 3D, droni in volo, videogame, film, documentari, speed date sul lavoro, maratone di coding e workshop per tutte le età. A Milano da venerdì 26 a domenica 28 maggio ai Giardini Indro Montanelli.
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ore 12:00
Quando la tecnologia diventa un linguaggio
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Federico Ferri - Direttore Responsabile Sky Sport
Federico Ferri è da fine 2016 Direttore Responsabile di Sky Sport. Torinese, 39 anni, Federico Ferri è stato autore di alcuni dei più importanti prodotti della rete, da Sky Sport Tech, che porta la sua firma, al rinnovato storytelling di programmi di punta come Sky Calcio Live, Sky Calcio Club e Sky Calcio Show, fino ad alcuni format di successo molto apprezzati dal nostro pubblico e dalla critica sportiva, come “Buffa Racconta” e “Mister Condò”.
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Sempre in prima linea
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Nadya Tolokonnikova - Fondatrice Pussy Riot
Nadežda Andreevna Tolokonnikova, anche nota come “Nadya Tolokno” è una artista e attivista politica russa. È tra le fondatrici del collettivo Pussy Riot, uno dei più importanti gruppi artisti degli ultimi anni che ha focalizzato la propria attività sulla violazione dei diritti umani in Russia e altrove. Nell’agosto 2012 è stata condannata a due anni di carcere in seguito alla performance anti Putin alla cattedrale di Cristo il Salvatore a Mosca. La protesta ha attirato l’attenzione e il supporto internazionale e l’adesione di personaggi quali Peter Gabriel, Sir Paul McCartney, Madonna, Bjork and Aung San Suu Kyi.
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ore 13:00
Sempre più in alto
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Gianmarco Tamberi - Atleta
Gianmarco Tamberi (Civitanova Marche, 1º giugno 1992) è un atleta italiano specializzato nel salto in alto, disciplina di cui è campione mondiale indoor a Portland 2016 e campione europeo ad Amsterdam 2016, nonché detentore del record italiano sia outdoor che indoor. In carriera vanta anche una medaglia di bronzo agli Europei juniores di Tallinn 2011.
È figlio dell’ex saltatore in alto e primatista italiano Marco Tamberi, suo attuale allenatore, e fratello di Gianluca, primatista italiano juniores del lancio del giavellotto, modello e attore.
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10 cose da fare per fare prevenzione - In collaborazione con Airc
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Geppi Cucciari - Artista e Testimonial Airc
Ugo Pastorino -Dottore e Direttore Scientifico Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori
Geppi Cucciari (Cagliari, 18 agosto 1973) è un’attrice e comica italiana, nota sul piccolo schermo per la sua comicità e le capacità di recitazione.
Il dottor Ugo Pastorino nasce ad Albenga (SV) il 15 luglio 1954. Nel 1979 consegue la Laurea in Medicina e Chirurgia presso l’Università Statale di Milano (110/lode). Dall’ottobre 2014 è Direttore Scientifico della Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori.
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ore 14:30
Insta-star
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Beatrice Vendramin - Attrice
Attrice, cantante e modella sin da bambina Beatrice Vendramin è un vero e proprio punto di riferimento per la generazione Zeta. É una delle protagoniste di Alex&Co, la situation comedy di Disney dal successo strepitoso dove interpreta il ruolo di Emma. Nel 2016 debutta sul grande schermo a fianco di Giovanna Mezzogiorno e Margherita Buy in “Come Diventare grandi, nonostante i genitori” per la regia di Luca Lucini dove è un’adolescente alle prese con tutte le sfide che la sua giovane età porta con sè.
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ore 15:00
Mediocrazia
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Alain Deneault - Docente e scrittore
Alain Deneault è un docente e filosofo canadese. Ha scritto saggi sulle politiche governative, sui paradisi fiscali e sulla crisi del pensiero critico. Insegna Scienze Politiche presso l’Università di Montréal e collabora con la rivista Liberté.
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ore 15:30
EPCC@WNF
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Alessandro Cattelan - Conduttore Radio e Tv
Alessandro Cattelan (Tortona, 11 maggio 1980) è un conduttore televisivo, conduttore radiofonico, scrittore e attore e comico italiano. Presentatore di punta di Sky Italia, tra i suoi programmi di maggior successo vi sono X Factor ed E poi c’è Cattelan.
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ore 16:30
Lo chiamavano cinema italiano
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Gabriele Mainetti - Attore e Regista
Nato a Roma nel 1976, è attore, regista e produttore cinematografico. Inizia come attore per cinema e fiction, è al contempo un compositore musicale e ha scritto le musiche per molti dei suoi lavori. Come regista inizia con il cortometraggio Basette. Nel 2011 fonda la Goon Films, che raggiunge il successo con Tiger Boy. Vince numerosi premi. Nel 2015 la sua casa di produzione realizza il suo primo cortometraggio: Lo chiamavano Jeeg Robot che, con un budget basso, ottiene grandi incassi e vince 7 statuette al David di Donatello, tra cui quella di miglior regista.
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ore 17:30
Lo strano caso dei TheGiornalisti
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Tommaso Paradiso - Cantante Thegiornalisti
Tommaso Paradiso è autore e cantante della band Thegiornalisti, ha scritto numerosi testi per artisti italiani. Nato 33 anni fa a Roma, ha iniziato a suonare con alcune band della capitale. Nel 2009 nasce Thegiornalisti. Dopo il debutto nel 2011 col primo album, Vol. 1, seguito dal secondo disco Vecchio, il gruppo ha raggiunto la notorietà grazie all’album Fuoricampo, pubblicato nel 2014. In particolar modo, si sono fatti conoscere nel 2015 con il singolo Fine dell’estate.
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ore 18:15
La critica del giornalismo
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Ilaria D’Amico - Conduttrice Tv e Giornalista
Ilaria D’Amico è una conduttrice televisiva, giornalista sportiva italiana. Dal 2003 lavora in Sky. Ha frequentato giurisprudenza all’Università La Sapienza di Roma senza conseguire la laurea. La D’Amico raccontò in tv nel 2006 a Fabio Fazio che esordì, grazie all’amico di famiglia Renzo Arbore, in televisione nel 1997 con La giostra dei goal su Rai International, programma che ha condotto per sei edizioni.
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ore 18:45
Tecnologici per caso
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Federico Russo - Conduttore radio e tv e Musicista
Francesco Mandelli - Attore, Comico e Musicista
Federico Russo nasce a Firenze il 22 dicembre 1980.
Negli anni del liceo, dopo aver abbandonato la “promettente” carriera calcistica, fonda con il suo compagno di banco gli “Scrabbles”, gruppo del quale è cantante, con cui si esibisce in giro per la Toscana sognando Smashing Pumpkins, Rolling Stones, Modern Lovers, Led Zeppelin e tutto ciò che c’è di irraggiungibile!
Francesco Mandelli (Erba, 3 aprile 1979) è un attore, presentatore, autore e musicista, noto per aver esordito nel 1998 nei panni del Nongiovane. Su MTV ha scritto e partecipato a programmi di successo quali Tokusho, Videoclash, BlackBox e Lazarus. Il grande successo è stato raggiunto, assieme al socio Biggio, con I soliti idioti, giunto alla quarta serie e trasformato successivamente in film e in un libro.
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Angkor Wat or "Capital Temple" is a temple complex in Cambodia and the largest religious monument in the world. It was first a Hindu and later a Buddhist temple. It was built by the Khmer King Suryavarman II in the early 12th century in Yaśodharapura, present-day Angkor, the capital of the Khmer Empire, as his state temple and eventual mausoleum.
Breaking from the Shiva tradition of previous kings, Angkor Wat was instead dedicated to Vishnu. As the best-preserved temple at the site, it is the only one to have remained a significant religious center since its foundation. The temple is at the top of the high classical style of Khmer architecture. It has become a symbol of Cambodia, appearing on its national flag, and it is the country's prime attraction for visitors. Angkor Wat combines two basic plans of Khmer temple architecture: the temple-mountain and the later galleried temple, based on early Dravidian architecture, with key features such as the Jagati. It is designed to represent Mount Meru, home of the devas in Hindu mythology: within a moat and an outer wall 3.6 kilometres long are three rectangular galleries, each raised above the next. At the centre of the temple stands a quincunx of towers. Unlike most Angkorian temples, Angkor Wat is oriented to the west; scholars are divided as to the significance of this. The temple is admired for the grandeur and harmony of the architecture, its extensive bas-reliefs, and for the numerous devatas adorning its walls.
The modern name, Angkor Wat, means "Temple City" or "City of Temples" in Khmer; Angkor, meaning "city" or "capital city", is a vernacular form of the word nokor (នគរ), which comes from the Sanskrit word nagara (नगर). Wat is the Khmer word for "temple grounds" (Sanskrit: वाट vāṭa ""enclosure").
HISTORY
Angkor Wat lies 5.5 kilometres north of the modern town of Siem Reap, and a short distance south and slightly east of the previous capital, which was centred at Baphuon. It is in an area of Cambodia where there is an important group of ancient structures. It is the southernmost of Angkor's main sites.
According to one legend, the construction of Angkor Wat was ordered by Indra to act as a palace for his son Precha Ket Mealea.
According to the 13th century Chinese traveler Daguan Zhou, it was believed by some that the temple was constructed in a single night by a divine architect. The initial design and construction of the temple took place in the first half of the 12th century, during the reign of Suryavarman II (ruled 1113-C. 1150). Dedicated to Vishnu, it was built as the king's state temple and capital city. As neither the foundation stela nor any contemporary inscriptions referring to the temple have been found, its original name is unknown, but it may have been known as "Varah Vishnu-lok" after the presiding deity. Work seems to have ended shortly after the king's death, leaving some of the bas-relief decoration unfinished.
In 1177, approximately 27 years after the death of Suryavarman II, Angkor was sacked by the Chams, the traditional enemies of the Khmer. Thereafter the empire was restored by a new king, Jayavarman VII, who established a new capital and state temple (Angkor Thom and the Bayon respectively) a few kilometers to the north.
In the late 13th century, Angkor Wat gradually moved from Hindu to Theravada Buddhist use, which continues to the present day. Angkor Wat is unusual among the Angkor temples in that although it was somewhat neglected after the 16th century it was never completely abandoned, its preservation being due in part to the fact that its moat also provided some protection from encroachment by the jungle.
One of the first Western visitors to the temple was António da Madalena, a Portuguese monk who visited in 1586 and said that it "is of such extraordinary construction that it is not possible to describe it with a pen, particularly since it is like no other building in the world. It has towers and decoration and all the refinements which the human genius can conceive of."
In the mid-19th century, the temple was visited by the French naturalist and explorer, Henri Mouhot, who popularised the site in the West through the publication of travel notes, in which he wrote:
"One of these temples - a rival to that of Solomon, and erected by some ancient Michelangelo - might take an honorable place beside our most beautiful buildings. It is grander than anything left to us by Greece or Rome, and presents a sad contrast to the state of barbarism in which the nation is now plunged."
Mouhot, like other early Western visitors, found it difficult to believe that the Khmers could have built the temple, and mistakenly dated it to around the same era as Rome. The true history of Angkor Wat was pieced together only from stylistic and epigraphic evidence accumulated during the subsequent clearing and restoration work carried out across the whole Angkor site. There were no ordinary dwellings or houses or other signs of settlement including cooking utensils, weapons, or items of clothing usually found at ancient sites. Instead there is the evidence of the monuments themselves.
Angkor Wat required considerable restoration in the 20th century, mainly the removal of accumulated earth and vegetation. Work was interrupted by the civil war and Khmer Rouge control of the country during the 1970s and 1980s, but relatively little damage was done during this period other than the theft and destruction of mostly post-Angkorian statues.The temple is a powerful symbol of Cambodia, and is a source of great national pride that has factored into Cambodia's diplomatic relations with France, the United States and its neighbor Thailand. A depiction of Angkor Wat has been a part of Cambodian national flags since the introduction of the first version circa 1863. From a larger historical and even transcultural perspective, however, the temple of Angkor Wat did not become a symbol of national pride sui generis but had been inscribed into a larger politico-cultural process of French-colonial heritage production in which the original temple site was presented in French colonial and universal exhibitions in Paris and Marseille between 1889 and 1937. Angkor Wat's aesthetics were also on display in the plaster cast museum of Louis Delaporte called musée Indo-chinois which existed in the Parisian Trocadero Palace from C. 1880 to the mid-1920s. The splendid artistic legacy of Angkor Wat and other Khmer monuments in the Angkor region led directly to France adopting Cambodia as a protectorate on 11 August 1863 and invading Siam to take control of the ruins. This quickly led to Cambodia reclaiming lands in the northwestern corner of the country that had been under Siamese (Thai) control since 1351 AD (Manich Jumsai 2001), or by some accounts, 1431 AD. Cambodia gained independence from France on 9 November 1953 and has controlled Angkor Wat since that time.
ARCHITECTURE
SITE AND PLAN
Angkor Wat, located at 13°24′45″N 103°52′0″E, is a unique combination of the temple mountain, the standard design for the empire's state temples and the later plan of concentric galleries. The temple is a representation of Mount Meru, the home of the gods: the central quincunx of towers symbolises the five peaks of the mountain, and the walls and moat the surrounding mountain ranges and ocean. Access to the upper areas of the temple was progressively more exclusive, with the laity being admitted only to the lowest level. Unlike most Khmer temples, Angkor Wat is oriented to the west rather than the east. This has led many (including Maurice Glaize and George Coedès) to conclude that Suryavarman intended it to serve as his funerary temple.Further evidence for this view is provided by the bas-reliefs, which proceed in a counter-clockwise direction - prasavya in Hindu terminology - as this is the reverse of the normal order. Rituals take place in reverse order during Brahminic funeral services. The archaeologist Charles Higham also describes a container which may have been a funerary jar which was recovered from the central tower. It has been nominated by some as the greatest expenditure of energy on the disposal of a corpse. Freeman and Jacques, however, note that several other temples of Angkor depart from the typical eastern orientation, and suggest that Angkor Wat's alignment was due to its dedication to Vishnu, who was associated with the west.
A further interpretation of Angkor Wat has been proposed by Eleanor Mannikka. Drawing on the temple's alignment and dimensions, and on the content and arrangement of the bas-reliefs, she argues that the structure represents a claimed new era of peace under King Suryavarman II: "as the measurements of solar and lunar time cycles were built into the sacred space of Angkor Wat, this divine mandate to rule was anchored to consecrated chambers and corridors meant to perpetuate the king's power and to honor and placate the deities manifest in the heavens above." Mannikka's suggestions have been received with a mixture of interest and scepticism in academic circles. She distances herself from the speculations of others, such as Graham Hancock, that Angkor Wat is part of a representation of the constellation Draco.
STYLE
Angkor Wat is the prime example of the classical style of Khmer architecture - the Angkor Wat style - to which it has given its name. By the 12th century Khmer architects had become skilled and confident in the use of sandstone (rather than brick or laterite) as the main building material. Most of the visible areas are of sandstone blocks, while laterite was used for the outer wall and for hidden structural parts. The binding agent used to join the blocks is yet to be identified, although natural resins or slaked lime has been suggested. The temple has drawn praise above all for the harmony of its design. According to Maurice Glaize, a mid-20th-century conservator of Angkor, the temple "attains a classic perfection by the restrained monumentality of its finely balanced elements and the precise arrangement of its proportions. It is a work of power, unity and style." Architecturally, the elements characteristic of the style include: the ogival, redented towers shaped like lotus buds; half-galleries to broaden passageways; axial galleries connecting enclosures; and the cruciform terraces which appear along the main axis of the temple. Typical decorative elements are devatas (or apsaras), bas-reliefs, and on pediments extensive garlands and narrative scenes. The statuary of Angkor Wat is considered conservative, being more static and less graceful than earlier work. Other elements of the design have been destroyed by looting and the passage of time, including gilded stucco on the towers, gilding on some figures on the bas-reliefs, and wooden ceiling panels and doors.
FEATURES
OUTER ENCLOSURE
The outer wall, 1024 by 802 m and 4.5 m high, is surrounded by a 30 m apron of open ground and a moat 190 m wide. Access to the temple is by an earth bank to the east and a sandstone causeway to the west; the latter, the main entrance, is a later addition, possibly replacing a wooden bridge. There are gopuras at each of the cardinal points; the western is by far the largest and has three ruined towers. Glaize notes that this gopura both hides and echoes the form of the temple proper. Under the southern tower is a statue of Vishnu, known as Ta Reach, which may originally have occupied the temple's central shrine.Galleries run between the towers and as far as two further entrances on either side of the gopura often referred to as "elephant gates", as they are large enough to admit those animals. These galleries have square pillars on the outer (west) side and a closed wall on the inner (east) side. The ceiling between the pillars is decorated with lotus rosettes; the west face of the wall with dancing figures; and the east face of the wall with balustered windows, dancing male figures on prancing animals, and devatas, including (south of the entrance) the only one in the temple to be showing her teeth. The outer wall encloses a space of 820,000 square metres, which besides the temple proper was originally occupied by the city and, to the north of the temple, the royal palace. Like all secular buildings of Angkor, these were built of perishable materials rather than of stone, so nothing remains of them except the outlines of some of the streets. Most of the area is now covered by forest. A 350 m causeway connects the western gopura to the temple proper, with naga balustrades and six sets of steps leading down to the city on either side. Each side also features a library with entrances at each cardinal point, in front of the third set of stairs from the entrance, and a pond between the library and the temple itself. The ponds are later additions to the design, as is the cruciform terrace guarded by lions connecting the causeway to the central structure.
CENTRAL STRUCTURE
The temple stands on a terrace raised higher than the city. It is made of three rectangular galleries rising to a central tower, each level higher than the last. Mannikka interprets these galleries as being dedicated to the king, Brahma, the moon, and Vishnu.
Each gallery has a gopura at each of the points, and the two inner galleries each have towers at their corners, forming a quincunx with the central tower. Because the temple faces west, the features are all set back towards the east, leaving more space to be filled in each enclosure and gallery on the west side; for the same reason the west-facing steps are shallower than those on the other sides.
The outer gallery measures 187 by 215 m, with pavilions rather than towers at the corners. The gallery is open to the outside of the temple, with columned half-galleries extending and buttressing the structure. Connecting the outer gallery to the second enclosure on the west side is a cruciform cloister called Preah Poan (the "Hall of a Thousand Gods"). Buddha images were left in the cloister by pilgrims over the centuries, although most have now been removed. This area has many inscriptions relating the good deeds of pilgrims, most written in Khmer but others in Burmese and Japanese. The four small courtyards marked out by the cloister may originally have been filled with water.
North and south of the cloister are libraries.
Beyond, the second and inner galleries are connected to each other and to two flanking libraries by another cruciform terrace, again a later addition. From the second level upwards, devatas abound on the walls, singly or in groups of up to four. The second-level enclosure is 100 by 115 m, and may originally have been flooded to represent the ocean around Mount Meru.
Three sets of steps on each side lead up to the corner towers and gopuras of the inner gallery. The very steep stairways represent the difficulty of ascending to the kingdom of the gods. This inner gallery, called the Bakan, is a 60 m square with axial galleries connecting each gopura with the central shrine, and subsidiary shrines located below the corner towers. The roofings of the galleries are decorated with the motif of the body of a snake ending in the heads of lions or garudas. Carved lintels and pediments decorate the entrances to the galleries and to the shrines. The tower above the central shrine rises 43 m to a height of 65 m above the ground; unlike those of previous temple mountains, the central tower is raised above the surrounding four. The shrine itself, originally occupied by a statue of Vishnu and open on each side, was walled in when the temple was converted to Theravada Buddhism, the new walls featuring standing Buddhas. In 1934, the conservator George Trouvé excavated the pit beneath the central shrine: filled with sand and water it had already been robbed of its treasure, but he did find a sacred foundation deposit of gold leaf two metres above ground level.
DECORATION
Integrated with the architecture of the building, and one of the causes for its fame is Angkor Wat's extensive decoration, which predominantly takes the form of bas-relief friezes. The inner walls of the outer gallery bear a series of large-scale scenes mainly depicting episodes from the Hindu epics the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. Higham has called these, "the greatest known linear arrangement of stone carving".
From the north-west corner anti-clockwise, the western gallery shows the Battle of Lanka (from the Ramayana, in which Rama defeats Ravana) and the Battle of Kurukshetra (from the Mahabharata, showing the mutual annihilation of the Kaurava and Pandava clans). On the southern gallery follow the only historical scene, a procession of Suryavarman II, then the 32 hells and 37 heavens of Hindu mythology.
On the eastern gallery is one of the most celebrated scenes, the Churning of the Sea of Milk, showing 92 asuras and 88 devas using the serpent Vasuki to churn the sea under Vishnu's direction (Mannikka counts only 91 asuras, and explains the asymmetrical numbers as representing the number of days from the winter solstice to the spring equinox, and from the equinox to the summer solstice). It is followed by Vishnu defeating asuras (a 16th-century addition). The northern gallery shows Krishna's victory over Bana (where according to Glaize, "The workmanship is at its worst"). and a battle between the Hindu gods and asuras. The north-west and south-west corner pavilions both feature much smaller-scale scenes, some unidentified but most from the Ramayana or the life of Krishna. Angkor Wat is decorated with depictions of apsaras and devata; there are more than 1,796 depictions of devata in the present research inventory. Angkor Wat architects employed small apsara images (30–40 cm) as decorative motifs on pillars and walls. They incorporated larger devata images (all full-body portraits measuring approximately 95–110 cm) more prominently at every level of the temple from the entry pavilion to the tops of the high towers. In 1927, Sappho Marchal published a study cataloging the remarkable diversity of their hair, headdresses, garments, stance, jewelry and decorative flowers, which Marchal concluded were based on actual practices of the Angkor period.
CONSTRUCTION TECHNIQUES
The stones, as smooth as polished marble, were laid without mortar with very tight joints that are sometimes hard to find. The blocks were held together by mortise and tenon joints in some cases, while in others they used dovetails and gravity. The blocks were presumably put in place by a combination of elephants, coir ropes, pulleys and bamboo scaffolding. Henri Mouhot noted that most of the blocks had holes 2.5 cm in diameter and 3 cm deep, with more holes on the larger blocks. Some scholars have suggested that these were used to join them together with iron rods, but others claim they were used to hold temporary pegs to help manoeuvre them into place. The monument was made out of millions of tonnes of sandstone and it has a greater volume as well as mass than the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt. The Angkor Wat Temple consumes about 6 million to 10 million blocks of sandstone with an average weight of 1.5 tons each. In fact, the entire city of Angkor used up far greater amounts of stone than all the Egyptian pyramids combined, and occupied an area significantly greater than modern-day Paris. Moreover, unlike the Egyptian pyramids which use limestone quarried barely half a km away all the time, the entire city of Angkor was built with sandstone quarried 40 km (or more) away. This sandstone had to be transported from Mount Kulen, a quarry approximately 40 km to the northeast. The route has been suggested to span 35 kilometres along a canal towards Tonlé Sap lake, another 35 kilometres crossing the lake, and finally 15 kilometres upstream and against the current along Siem Reap River, making a total journey of 90 kilometres. However, Etsuo Uchida and Ichita Shimoda of Waseda University in Tokyo, Japan have discovered in 2012 a shorter 35-kilometre canal connecting Mount Kulen and Angkor Wat using satellite imagery. The two believe that the Khmer used this route instead.
Virtually all of its surfaces, columns, lintels even roofs are carved. There are miles of reliefs illustrating scenes from Indian literature including unicorns, griffins, winged dragons pulling chariots as well as warriors following an elephant-mounted leader and celestial dancing girls with elaborate hair styles. The gallery wall alone is decorated with almost 1000 square metres of bas reliefs. Holes on some of the Angkor walls indicate that they may have been decorated with bronze sheets. These were highly prized in ancient times and were a prime target for robbers. While excavating Khajuraho, Alex Evans, a stonemason and sculptor, recreated a stone sculpture under 1.2 m, this took about 60 days to carve. Roger Hopkins and Mark Lehner also conducted experiments to quarry limestone which took 12 quarrymen 22 days to quarry about 400 tons of stone. The labor force to quarry, transport, carve and install so much sandstone must have run into the thousands including many highly skilled artisans. The skills required to carve these sculptures were developed hundreds of years earlier, as demonstrated by some artifacts that have been dated to the seventh century, before the Khmer came to power.
ANGKOR WAT TODAY
The Archaeological Survey of India carried out restoration work on the temple between 1986 and 1992. Since the 1990s, Angkor Wat has seen continued conservation efforts and a massive increase in tourism. The temple is part of the Angkor World Heritage Site, established in 1992, which has provided some funding and has encouraged the Cambodian government to protect the site. The German Apsara Conservation Project (GACP) is working to protect the devatas and other bas-reliefs which decorate the temple from damage. The organisation's survey found that around 20% of the devatas were in very poor condition, mainly because of natural erosion and deterioration of the stone but in part also due to earlier restoration efforts. Other work involves the repair of collapsed sections of the structure, and prevention of further collapse: the west facade of the upper level, for example, has been buttressed by scaffolding since 2002, while a Japanese team completed restoration of the north library of the outer enclosure in 2005. World Monuments Fund began conservation work on the Churning of the Sea of Milk Gallery in 2008 after several years of conditions studies. The project restored the traditional Khmer roofing system and removed cement used in earlier restoration attempts that had resulted in salts entering the structure behind the bas-relief, discoloring and damaging the sculpted surfaces. The main phase of work ended in 2012, and the final component will be the installation of finials on the roof of the gallery in 2013. Microbial biofilms have been found degrading sandstone at Angkor Wat, Preah Khan, and the Bayon and West Prasat in Angkor. The dehydration and radiation resistant filamentous cyanobacteria can produce organic acids that degrade the stone. A dark filamentous fungus was found in internal and external Preah Khan samples, while the alga Trentepohlia was found only in samples taken from external, pink-stained stone at Preah Khan. Angkor Wat has become a major tourist destination. In 2004 and 2005, government figures suggest that, respectively, 561.000 and 677.000 foreign visitors arrived in Siem Reap province, approximately 50% of all foreign tourists in Cambodia for both years. The site has been managed by the private SOKIMEX group since 1990, which rented it from the Cambodian government. The influx of tourists has so far caused relatively little damage, other than some graffiti; ropes and wooden steps have been introduced to protect the bas-reliefs and floors, respectively. Tourism has also provided some additional funds for maintenance - as of 2000 approximately 28% of ticket revenues across the whole Angkor site was spent on the temples - although most work is carried out by foreign government-sponsored teams rather than by the Cambodian authorities. Since Angkor Wat has seen significant growth in tourism throughout the years UNESCO and its International Co-ordinating Committee for the Safeguarding and Development of the Historic Site of Angkor (ICC), in association with representatives from the Royal Government and APSARA, organized seminars to discuss the concept of "cultural tourism". Wanting to avoid commercial and mass tourism, the seminars emphasized the importance of providing high quality accommodation and services in order for the Cambodian government to benefit economically, while also incorporating the richness of Cambodian culture. In 2001, this incentive resulted in the concept of the "Angkor Tourist City" which would be developed with regard to traditional Khmer architecture, contain leisure and tourist facilities, and provide luxurious hotels capable of accommodating large amounts of tourists. The prospect of developing such large tourist accommodations has encountered concerns from both APSARA and the ICC, claiming that previous tourism developments in the area have neglected construction regulations and more of these projects have the potential to damage landscape features. Also, the large scale of these projects have begun to threaten the quality of the nearby town's water, sewage, and electricity systems. It has been noted that such high frequency of tourism and growing demand for quality accommodations in the area, such as the development of a large highway, has had a direct effect on the underground water table, subsequently straining the structural stability of the temples at Angkor Wat. Locals of Siem Reap have also voiced concern over the charming nature and atmosphere of their town being compromised in order to entertain tourism. Since this charming local atmosphere is the key component to projects like Angkor Tourist City, local officials continue to discuss how to successfully incorporate future tourism without sacrificing local values and culture. At the ASEAN Tourism Forum 2012, both parties have agreed Borobudur and Angkor Wat to become sister sites and the provinces will become sister provinces. Two Indonesian airlines are considering the opportunity to open a direct flight from Yogyakarta, Indonesia to Siem Reap.
WIKIPEDIA
Published 1953. Another old scan hanging about the computer. The illustrations inside are sadly lacking in interest -- lots of intricate details of brooms and how to mend picture frames. But I love the cover! The checkerboard is the best!
This photo is published under Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike Licence, means you are free to use this photo with attribution under same licence. When giving attribution, please use following;
Owner: Thai National Parks
Link: www.thainationalparks.com/kaeng-krachan-national-park/guided-tours
Anlässlich des Internationalen Weltfrauentag, sind am 08.03.2019 in Berlin rund 20.000 Menschen auf die Straße gegangen, um für mehr Gleichberechtigung von Frauen sowie mehr Rechte für Homosexuelle zu demonstrieren. Zudem forderten die Teilnehmer*Innen auf Schildern und auf Transparente mehr politische und wirtschaftliche Gleichstellung, ein selbstbestimmtes Leben, für das Recht auf körperliche Unversehrtheit, sowie sexuelle Selbstbestimmung. Mit der Demonstration wollten die Demonstrant*Innen zudem ein deutliches Zeichen gegen jede Form von Sexismus, Gewalt und Unterdrückung setzen, die insbesondere Frauen, LGBTQI* (Lesben, Schwule, Bisexuelle, Trans*-, Inter- und queere Menschen) und People of Color betrifft.
Zu der Demonstration aufgerufen hatte das Bündnis "Frauen*Kampftag", ein Zusammenschluss aus Parteien, Gewerkschaften und verschiedenen linken Initiativen. Bereits im Vorfeld der Demonstration hatten die Organisatoren erklärt, es gehe bei dem Protest nicht nur um Frauen, sondern um alle Menschen, die von patriarchalen Strukturen eingeschränkt würden. Seit 1921 wird der Frauentag jährlich am 8. März gefeiert. 1977 erkannte die UN-Generalversammlung den 8. März als Internationalen Frauentag an. In Berlin ist der Tag in diesem Jahr erstmals Feiertag.
Rund 20.000 Menschen sind am 08. März 2019 in Berlin auf die Straße gegangen, um für mehr Rechte und Gleichberechtigung von Frauen sowie aller Lebensweisen und Geschlechtsidentitäten zu demonstrieren. Auf Schilder und Transparente forderten die Demonstranten mehr politische und wirtschaftliche Gleichstellung, ein selbstbestimmtes Leben, für das Recht auf körperliche Unversehrtheit, sowie sexuelle Selbstbestimmung. Mit der Demonstration setzten die Demonstrant*Innen deutliches Zeichen gegen Sexismus, Gewalt und Unterdrückung, die insbesondere Frauen, LGBTQI* (Lesben, Schwule, Bisexuelle, Trans*-, Inter- und queere Menschen) und People of Color betrifft. Die Veranstalter*Innen wehren sich gegen Diskriminierung, sexuelle Belästigung und Gewalt – egal ob am Arbeitsplatz, im Verein, auf der Straße oder zu Hause.
In Redebeiträgen wurde kritisiert, dass sexuelle Übergriffe keine Einzelfälle mehr sind und die herrschenden patriarchalen Strukturen in der Gesellschaft auf alle auswirken. Ebenso thematisierten die RednerInnen, dass Schwangerschaftsabbruch in Deutschland immer noch rechtswidrig ist. Zudem verlangten selbst über ihren Körper bestimmen können und forderten die eine Neuregelung eines Schwangerschaftsabbruchs. Diese gehört nicht in das Strafgesetzbuch, die Paragrafen 218 und 219 müssen ersatzlos gestrichen werden.Wie bereits in den vergangenen Jahren wehrten sich die Redner*Innen die Vereinnahmung des Themas „Frauenrechte“ durch Rechtspopulisten und Neonazis.
Unter dem Motto „Feiern-Streiken-Weiterkämpfen! Gemeinsam voran! Für eine starke neue Frauenbewegung!“ versammelten sich die Demonstrant*Innen am Nachmittag auf dem Alexanderplatz zur großen Auftaktkundgebung. Kurz vor 16.00 Uhr setzte sich der Zug über die Alexanderstraße in Richtung Kreuzberg in Bewegung. Über die Brückenstraße, die Heinrich-Heine-Straße zum Moritzplatz, von dort aus ging es weiter über die Prinzenstraße, die Gitschiner Straße über den Kottbusser Tor. Über die Adalbert- und Oranienstraße ging es zum Ort der Abschlusskundgebung auf dem Oranienplatz.
Zu der Demonstration hatte Bündnis "Frauen*Kampftag" aufgerufen, hierbei handelt es sich um ein Zusammenschluss aus Gewerkschaften, Parteien, linke-, antifaschistische- und antirassistische Gruppen sowie LGBTI-Initiativen. Darunter befand sich auch das Bündnis für sexuelle Selbstbestimmung, die Partei „DIE LINKE“ sowie „Die Grünen“. An einem linksradikalen feministischen Block unter dem Motto „Feminsm is Classwar! Heraus zum Frauen*streik 2019!“ beteiligten sich über 3.000 Personen. Zu dieser Block hatte unter anderem das kommunistische Bündnis „…um Ganze!“ sowie das Bündnis „Nationalismus ist keine Alternative (NIKA)“ aufgerufen. Bereits im Vorfeld hatten linksradikale Gruppen bundesweit zu einem „Frauenstreik“ aufgerufen.
Der Internationale Weltfrauentag wurde auf Anregung der deutschen Sozialdemokratin Clara Zetkin erstmals am 19. März 1911 in Deutschland und in Nachbarländern organisiert. Seit 1921 wird der Frauentag jährlich am 8. März gefeiert. 1977 erkannte die UN-Generalversammlung den 8. März als Internationalen Frauentag an. In Berlin ist der Tag in diesem Jahr erstmals Feiertag.
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The Postcard
A Star Series postcard that was published by G. D. & D. of London. The card was printed in Bavaria.
The card was posted in Blackpool on Friday the 21st. June 1912 to:
Miss A. Ellis,
180, Cleveland Street,
Doncaster,
Yorks.
The message on the divided back of the card was as follows:
"Dear Ada,
Had a grand day
yesterday but showery
today.
We are having some
fun.
Love, Bert.
I will try and write that
letter on Sunday".
Blackpool
Blackpool is a seaside resort in Lancashire on the northwest coast of England. The town is by the Irish Sea, between the Ribble and Wyre rivers, and is 27 miles (43 km) north of Liverpool and 40 miles (64 km) northwest of Manchester.
At the 2011 census, Blackpool had a population of 139,720, making it the most populous settlement in Lancashire. It is home to the Blackpool Tower, which when built in 1894 was the tallest building in the British Empire.
Throughout the Medieval and Early Modern period, Blackpool was a coastal hamlet in Lancashire's Amounderness Hundred, and remained as such until the mid-18th. century, when it became fashionable in England to travel to the coast in the summer to improve well-being.
In 1781, visitors attracted to Blackpool's 7-mile (11 km) sandy beach were able to use a new private road, built by Thomas Clifton and Sir Henry Hoghton.
Stagecoaches began running to Blackpool from Manchester in the same year, and from Halifax in 1782. In the early 19th. century, Henry Banks and his son-in-law John Cocker erected new buildings in Blackpool, which increased its population from less than 500 in 1801 to over 2,500 in 1851. St John's Church in Blackpool was consecrated in 1821.
Blackpool rose to prominence as a major centre of tourism in England when a railway was built in the 1840's connecting it to the industrialised regions of northern England. The railway made it much easier and cheaper for visitors to reach Blackpool, triggering an influx of settlers.
By 1881, Blackpool was a booming resort with a population of 14,000 and a promenade complete with piers, fortune-tellers, public houses, trams, donkey rides, fish and chip shops, and theatres.
By 1901, the population of Blackpool was 47,000, by which time its place was cemented as the archetypal British seaside resort. By 1951, the town had grown to 147,000 people.
Shifts in tastes, combined with opportunities for British people to travel overseas, affected Blackpool's status as a leading resort in the late 20th. century. However its urban fabric and economy both remain relatively undiversified and firmly rooted in the tourism sector, and the borough's seafront continues to attract millions of visitors every year.
Blackpool's major attractions and landmarks include the Blackpool Tower, Blackpool Illuminations, Pleasure Beach, Blackpool Zoo, Sandcastle Water Park, the Winter Gardens and Blackpool Tramway, which is the UK's only surviving first-generation tramway.
Mary McCarthy
So what else happened on the day that Bert posted the card?
Well, the 21st. June 1912 marked the birth in Seattle, Washington of Mary Therese McCarthy. Mary was an American novelist, critic and political activist.
-- Mary McCarthy - The Early Years
Mary was born to Roy Winfield McCarthy and his wife, the former Martha Therese Preston. Mary was orphaned at the age of six when both her parents died in the flu epidemic of 1918.
She and her brothers, Kevin, Preston, and Sheridan, were raised in very unhappy circumstances by her Catholic father's parents in Minneapolis, Minnesota, under the direct care of an uncle and aunt she remembered for harsh treatment and abuse.
When the situation became intolerable, she was taken in by her maternal grandparents in Seattle. Her maternal grandmother, Augusta Morganstern, was Jewish, and her maternal grandfather, Harold Preston, a prominent attorney and co-founder of the law firm Preston Gates & Ellis, was Presbyterian. Her brothers were sent to boarding school.
McCarthy credited her grandfather, who helped draft one of the nation's first Workmen's Compensation Acts, with helping form her liberal views. McCarthy explores the complex events of her early life in Minneapolis and her coming of age in Seattle in her memoir, 'Memories of a Catholic Girlhood'. Her younger brother, actor Kevin McCarthy, went on to star in such movies as 'Death of a Salesman' (1951) and 'Invasion of the Body Snatchers' (1956).
Under the guardianship of the Prestons, McCarthy studied at the Forest Ridge School of the Sacred Heart in Seattle and Annie Wright Seminary in Tacoma, and went on to graduate in 1933 with an A.B. cum laude from Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York, where she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa.
-- Mary McCarthy's Literary Career
Her debut novel, 'The Company She Keeps', received critical acclaim as a succès de scandale, depicting the social milieu of New York intellectuals of the late 1930's with unreserved frankness.
After building a reputation as a satirist and critic, McCarthy enjoyed popular success when the 1963 edition of her novel 'The Group' remained on the New York Times Best Seller list for almost two years. Her work is noted for its precise prose and its complex mixture of autobiography and fiction.
Her feud with fellow writer Lillian Hellman formed the basis for the play 'Imaginary Friends' by Nora Ephron. The feud had simmered since the late 1930's over ideological differences, particularly the questions of the Moscow Trials and of Hellman's support for the 'Popular Front' with Stalin.
McCarthy provoked Hellman in 1979 when she famously said on The Dick Cavett Show: "Every word Hellman writes is a lie, including 'and' and 'the'."
Hellman responded by filing a $2.5 million libel suit against McCarthy, which ended shortly after Hellman died in 1984. Observers of the trial noted the resulting irony of Hellman's defamation suit is that it brought significant scrutiny, and decline of Hellman's reputation, by forcing McCarthy and her supporters to prove that she had lied.
-- Mary McCarthy's Beliefs as an Adult
McCarthy left the Catholic Church as a young woman when she became an atheist. In her contrarian fashion, McCarthy treasured her religious education for the classical foundation it provided her intellect, while at the same time she depicted her loss of faith and her contests with religious authority as essential to her character.
In New York, she moved in 'fellow-travelling' Communist circles early in the 1930's, but by the latter half of the decade she repudiated Soviet-style Communism, expressing solidarity with Leon Trotsky after the Moscow Trials, and vigorously countering playwrights and authors she considered to be sympathetic to Stalinism.
As part of the Partisan Review circle and as a contributor to The Nation, The New Republic, Harper's Magazine, and The New York Review of Books, she garnered attention as a cutting critic.
During the 1940's and 1950's she became a liberal critic of both McCarthyism and Communism. She maintained her commitment to liberal critiques of culture and power to the end of her life, opposing the Vietnam War in the 1960's and covering the Watergate scandal hearings in the 1970's.
-- Mary McCarthy's Opposition to the Vietnam War
In 1967 and 1968, McCarthy travelled to North and South Vietnam, to report on the war from an anti-war perspective. She documented her observations in two books, 'Vietnam', and 'Hanoi'.
Interviewed after her first trip, she declared on British television that there was not a single documented case of the Viet Cong deliberately killing a South Vietnamese woman or child. She wrote favourably about the Viet Cong.
McCarthy visited North Vietnam in March 1968, only a month after the Tet Offensive created havoc in South Vietnam. In her book, 'Hanoi', McCarthy provides a rare English-language description of life in North Vietnam during Vietnam's war with the United States. McCarthy describes an orderly society, in which everyone pitched in to help with the war effort. North Vietnam received advance warning of most bombing attacks, and McCarthy regularly had to take cover from American bombs.
McCarthy's visits to Vietnam generated some controversy. During her visit to North Vietnam, McCarthy met briefly with U.S. Air Force officer James Risner, who was being held as a prisoner of war by North Vietnam at the time.
Years later, after his release, Risner attacked McCarthy as not having recognized that he had been tortured by the North Vietnamese while in custody.
-- The Personal Life of Mary McCarthy
Mary married four times. In 1933 she married Harald Johnsrud, an actor and would-be playwright.
Her best-known spouse was the writer and critic Edmund Wilson, whom she married in 1938 after leaving her lover Philip Rahv, and with whom she had a son, Reuel Wilson.
In 1946 she married Bowden Broadwater, who worked for the New Yorker.
In 1961, McCarthy married career diplomat James R. West.
Although she broke ranks with some of her Partisan Review colleagues when they swerved toward conservative politics after World War II, she carried on lifelong friendships with Dwight Macdonald, Nicola Chiaromonte, Philip Rahv, F. W. Dupee and Elizabeth Hardwick.
Most prized of all was her close friendship with Hannah Arendt, with whom she maintained a sizeable correspondence widely regarded for its intellectual rigor.
After Arendt's passing, McCarthy became Arendt's literary executor from 1976 until her own death in 1989. McCarthy taught at Bard College from 1946 to 1947, and once again between 1986 and 1989.
-- The Death of Mary McCarthy
Mary died at the age of 77 of lung cancer on the 25th. October 1989, at New York–Presbyterian Hospital in New York City.
-- Film Portrayal of Mary McCarthy
In the 2012 German movie Hannah Arendt, Mary McCarthy is portrayed by Janet McTeer.